Note: You can use coupon code PotatoYear for half off your first month over at www.Patreon.com/KillTheComputer where this episode was originally released ~mid-September A tech billionaire and Trump donor bankrolled an "AI focused" private school that costs $50,000+ a year. Kids are allegedly hooked to heart monitors while being criticized, and fail if their heartrate increases too much. They work unpaid "dirty" jobs like scrubbing toilets or manual labor, and strangely have required follower quotas on social media. This is Alpha School, the billionaire-funded AI academy Trump's Education Secretary came to tour. We spoke with Benjamin Riley, founder of Cognitive Resonance, an education think tank, who is investigating what he believes are many improprieties. Follow Ben and read his initial reporting and follow ups here: https://buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/special-report-my-so-called-alpha

Use coupon code POTATOYEAR for half off the first month of your Patreon subscription from now until Halloween at www.Patreon.com/KillTheComputer Articles discussed: Character AI: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/13/just-5-years-in-interactive-chatbot-platform-character-ai-files-for-bankruptcy/ https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-companies-afraid-characterai-bankrupcy

Kelly Clarkson Bird Drama: https://slate.com/life/2026/10/kelly-clarkson-art-of-play-brooklyn-store-bird.html Accenture: https://www.404media.co/accenture-tells-employees-they-can-now-spend-only-29-on-claude-per-month/

Elon Musk says he's had AI 'psychosis' half a dozen times in the last year https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-ai-psychosis-2026-10

Full episode: www.Patreon.com/KillTheComputer Saul Levin is the Program Director for the Center for Nonviolent Conflict Research and host of The Hum podcast, which serves as the oral history of the fight against data centers. He walks us through what successful municipalities have done to push back and what you can do if one pops up in your neighborhood. Follow Saul: https://x.com/thehumpod Read the column he co-authored in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/08/ai-datacenters-democracy

Brian and Josh from The Worst of All Possible Worlds join us to discuss The Worst of All Possible Books: Mr. Beast's LLM-ridden slopfest "The Most Dangerous Games". Follow TWOAPW: https://www.worstpossible.world

FULL EPISODE: www.Patreon.com/KillTheComputer June and Maddyson walk Caleb through news of Candace Ownen's alleged romantic past and the personal lives of many influential conservatives. Then we read a follow up on our previous episode about Brown Brothers Media's ties to Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein, how Suno sucks (sorry for the outro) and a story about people "tormenting" LLMs. Brown Brothers Media Update: https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/brown-brothers-media-ghislaine-maxwell Torturing Chatbots https://www.404media.co/someone-torturing-llms-in-a-robot-prison-has-triggered-the-dumbest-debate-in-ai-yet/

Maggie Harrison Dupre returns with Jon Christian to take us through their reporting on Brown Brothers Media, a family operated slop mill that quietly reached tens of millions by gaming Google with thousands of fake articles written with fake bylines by personas with falsified credentials. Oh, and by the way, they had a Shaman. Read the article here: https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/brown-brothers-media-ai-slop-empire Follow Maggie: https://bsky.app/profile/mharrisondupre.bsky.social Follow Jon: https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net

We spoke with Benjamin Riley, founder of Cognitive Resonance, an education think tank, who is investigating what he believes are many improprieties. Follow Ben's reporting and future follow-ups here: https://buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/special-report-my-so-called-alpha

Tilly Norwood speaks a little Chinese for for Piers Morgan, America almost goes to war with China over an AI hallucination, AI agents are making the internet a more annoying place, Americans are totally exhausted, and we weigh in on the AI doomerism + Ethical Altruism vs MAGA civil war. Articles discussed in this episode: Tilly Norwood Speaks Chinese https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/watch-piers-morgan-gobsmacked-as-ai-actress-tilly-norwood-glitches-out-suddenly-speaks-chinese-during-interview/ Exclusive: US military had close call after using AI for false intelligence report, sources say https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/us-military-ai-false-intelligence-china-ship There’s a 100% Chance AI Agents Are Already Ruining the Internet https://www.404media.co/theres-a-100-chance-ai-agents-are-already-ruining-the-internet/ 71% of Americans Say They’re Completely Exhausted https://gizmodo.com/71-of-americans-say-theyre-completely-exhausted-2000812712