“My role is technical.” / “I’m just a small cog.”
— Anonymous Israeli intelligence officers who helped develop an AI mapping tool that trawled for phone signals and recommended apartment buildings in Gaza to bomb, as reported by The Guardian.
There has been a worldwide crash of Microsoft software systems What are the consequences?
The most immediate concern is the collapse of the wages system, an interruption of essential services, including the payment of wages, government benefits and payments to organisations delivering publicly funded services.
In Belgium, nearly all is down.
Also the supermarket fridges etc are knocked out often but not reported much.
It’s ongoing … people only know because they’ve been at shops when food is being thrown out.
We only know what the power mobs want us to know – we can have no trust these days in government and the corporate thieves.
NGOs are being paid in Queensland. The wages of staff are frozen.
Meanwhile the fascination with AI continues …
AI and NAZA
Artificial Intelligence and Its Discontents – Paradigm Shift, 4ZZZ
A review of Andy Paine’s Paradigm Shift program, broadcast on 6 November 2026 on 4ZZZ, Magan-djin (Brisbane), 102.1 FM.
Good program on AI, Andy Paine. It would be interesting to know how activist groups are using artificial intelligence in their own political organisation.
Andy Paine’s Paradigm Shift raises important questions about the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, the growing power of technology corporations and the consequences for ordinary communities.
The program brings together two perspectives on the development of AI: the campaign to slow or halt its potentially dangerous expansion, and the resistance of local communities to the physical infrastructure required to sustain it.
Huxley, from PauseAI, discusses the movement challenging the rapid development of artificial intelligence and organising public action in Brisbane.
Jacqui, from Citizens of Tottenham, describes community opposition to the expansion of data centres in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Her contribution brings the discussion down to earth. Artificial intelligence is not simply a collection of algorithms operating somewhere in cyberspace. It depends on enormous physical infrastructure, consuming electricity, water, land and other resources.
The program therefore raises a fundamental political question: Who controls the development of AI, who benefits from it, and who bears its social and environmental costs?
AI and Political Organisation
There is another question worth pursuing, particularly for people involved in community campaigns, trade unions and grassroots political organisations.
How are activist groups themselves using artificial intelligence to organise?
AI already offers practical possibilities for drafting leaflets, researching legislation, analysing government policies, preparing submissions, translating material, organising campaign information and communicating with supporters.
For small activist organisations operating with limited resources, these tools may provide considerable assistance. Tasks that once took hours of research, writing and editing can sometimes be completed much more quickly.
However, these opportunities bring serious questions about surveillance, privacy, misinformation, political independence and the concentration of technological power.
Activist organisations need to consider whether AI can strengthen democratic participation without surrendering control of their information, political analysis or decision-making to commercial technology companies.
An Important Discussion for the Left
The challenge is not simply whether artificial intelligence is good or bad. It is whether the technology can be brought under democratic control and used for social benefit rather than corporate profit, surveillance and the further concentration of economic power.
Andy Paine’s program provides a useful starting point for that discussion.
A worthwhile follow-up would be to invite community organisers, trade unionists and political activists to explain how they are already using AI, what benefits they have found and what risks they have encountered.
Good program, Andy Paine. The next question is how activist organisations can use AI effectively while remaining critical of the corporations that control it.
Listen to the program:
Paradigm Shift – Artificial Intelligence and Its Discontents, 6 November 2026, 4ZZZ