But even I was surprised to learn that we can trace the impact of eugenics in tech all the way back to Karl Pearson, the mathematician who pioneered the field of statistics, and who also spent his life trying to quantify the differences between races. (Guess who he believed was superior.) His legacy was continued by William Shockley<\/a>, a co-creator of the transistor, an avowed white supremacist who spent his later years espousing (now debunked) theories around IQ and racial differences.<\/p>\n An early robot toy. (Valerie Veatch for “Ghost in the Machine”)<\/p>\n As a Stanford engineering professor, Shockley fostered a culture of prioritizing white men over women and minorities, which ultimately shaped the way Silicon Valley looks today. His line of thinking could have had an influence on John McCarthy, the Stanford researcher who coined the term \u201cartificial intelligence\u201d in 1955, <\/p>\n With roots like that, Elon Musk \u2014 known to spout bigotry online<\/a>,\u00a0 foster a reportedly racist work environment at Tesla<\/a> and \u00a0throw the occasionaly few Nazi salute<\/a> \u2014 looks less like an anomaly than part of a pattern. Ghost in the Machine asks a simple question: How can we trust men like this (and it’s almost always men that look like Musk) with our future?<\/p>\n Through its many interviews, which include the likes of AI researcher Dr. Emily Bender, historian Becca Lewis and media theorist Douglass Rushkoff, Ghost in the Machine paints the rise of AI as a fascistic project that aims to demean humans and establish the techno-elite as our de facto rulers. Given how much our lives are already dominated by gadgets and social networks from companies that have pioneered addictive engagement over user safety, it’s easy to imagine history repeating itself with AI.<\/p>\n Ghost in the Machine doesn’t leave any room for considering potential benefits around AI, which could lead proponents of the technology to dismiss it as a hit-job. But we’re currently at the apex of the AI hype cycle, after Big Tech has invested hundreds of billions of dollars on this technology, and after it has spent years shoving it down our throats without proving why it\u2019s actually useful to many people. AI should be able to withstand a bit of criticism.<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6qnynar3wGhost_in_the_Machine-Still_1.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n