Podcast Summary: The Preamble

Episode: How ICE Is Mimicking 19th Century Slave Patrols, and What AI Tech Billionaires Really Want
Host: Sharon McMahon
Guests: Khalil Green (The Gen Z Historian) & Karen Hao (Author, Empire of AI)
Air Date: February 2, 2026

Main Themes

This episode explores two urgent and complex topics:

• The parallel between ICE’s current immigration enforcement strategies and 19th-century slave patrols in America.
• The true motives of AI tech industry leaders and the sweeping consequences of AI development, featuring insights from investigative journalist Karen Hao.

Segment 1: ICE, Slave Patrols, and the Legacy of Enforcement

Guest: Khalil Green
[00:56 – 16:19]

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Historical Parallels: Fugitive Slave Act and ICE

• Michael Burns’ Story (1854, Boston)
  • Federal troops used massive force to return fugitive slave Anthony Burns.
  • Public outrage and protest (50,000 people, streets draped in black, symbolic coffin of “Liberty”) catalyzed abolitionist organization and state resistance.

“The spectacle cost the federal government $40,000 and unprecedented manpower. It also backfired completely. Within months, Boston became a no-go zone for slave catchers.” — Khalil Green [02:49]

• Fugitive Slave Act of 1850:
  • Instituted federal marshals’ direct local enforcement, mandatory state/local cooperation, and citizen deputization—parallels modern ICE detainer practices.
  • Low burden of proof for enslavement; financially incentivized returns.
  • Racial profiling as an engine—any Black person without “papers” could be seized.

The Engine of Racial Profiling

• Solomon Northup’s Kidnapping:
  • Free Black individuals were often kidnapped (“reverse Underground Railroad”)—legal status or documentation could be disregarded.
  • Khalil draws a direct line to modern ICE community raids disproportionately targeting Latinos: “Latinos accounted for nine out of 10 ICE arrests during the first six months of 2025.” [11:17]

Legal Infrastructure and Public Response

• Current Legal Cover:

  • “Kavanaugh stops”: Supreme Court allows ICE to use ethnicity, language, and location as criteria for detainment, codifying constitutional legitimacy for profiling [11:56].
  • Professor Emmanuel Molleon: “The opinion represents a major turn… adopting the position that racial profiling, ethnic profiling is reasonable under the Constitution, which no other court has said thus far.” [12:34]

• Shift from Criminals to Civilians:

  • Majority of detainees now have no criminal convictions—“The status of being undocumented in the US is a civil violation, not a criminal one.” [13:18]

Resistance Then and Now

• Historical Abolitionist Resistance:

  • Groups like the Boston Vigilance Committee provided support, legal aid, and staged rescues; “Sanctuary” policies trace their roots to “Personal Liberty Laws.”
  • Inspirational quote: “Constitution or no constitution, law or no law, we will not allow a fugitive slave to be taken from Massachusetts.” [14:20]
  • Civil disobedience and community organizing (blowing whistles, using Signal chats, legal blockades) are modern echoes of 1850s tactics.

• Legislative and Policy Continuities:

  • Today’s sanctuary laws bar local cooperation, much like 19th-century Personal Liberty Acts.
  • Federal government (e.g., “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”) massively increases enforcement funding and infrastructure: “$170 billion for immigration enforcement… $45 billion to expand ICE detention capacity, $30 billion to hire new agents.” [15:20]

• Public Outcry:

  • Mass protests in Minneapolis and St. Paul mirror historic abolitionist mass action.
  • Quote capturing the stakes: “The people who enforce the Fugitive Slave Act now occupy history's moral dustbin. The question for all of us now is simple. Which side do you want to be remembered on?” — Khalil Green [16:14]

Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “ICE isn’t the Gestapo. ICE is the slave catcher. And the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 tells us everything we need to know about where this is heading.” — Khalil Green [04:35]
• “Racial profiling was the engine of slave catching in the 1800s, much as it is the engine of immigration enforcement today.” — Khalil Green [08:38]
• “The only crime most people had committed was not having the correct legal status and documents.” — Khalil Green [14:50]
• “The abolitionists who turned Boston into a no-go zone for slave catchers were not acting within the bounds of the law. They were acting within the bounds of conscience.” — Khalil Green [15:53]

Segment 2: What AI Tech Billionaires Really Want

Guest: Karen Hao
[17:21 – 41:49]

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Supernatural Ideology of AI Leaders

• The “Boomers” vs. the “Doomers”
  • Public discourse swings between techno-utopian (“Boomers”) and apocalyptic (“Doomers”) narratives.
  • Hao situates herself in the “AI accountability camp,” a third position grounded in real-world impact.

“Boomers and Doomers are two sides of the same coin… both perpetuate the narrative that there is a technology being created that is akin to either a God or a demon… but these camps believe that it's AI that's going to have agency go rogue and do that transformation. But really, the actual story is that there are people… that have consolidated a profound amount of power, wealth, talent, energy, water…” — Karen Hao [18:30]

• Genuine Believers—and Opportunists:
  • Many tech leaders sincerely believe AI is humanity’s salvation or doom; others leverage such beliefs for marketing, then sometimes “fall into their own belief.” [20:26]
  • Comparison to “Dune” mythmaking—some initially create the myth, others come to genuinely embrace it.

The Religious and Ideological Core

• A quasi-religious Quest:
  • Tech elites believe they are building “Civilization 2.0”—motivated less by profit, more by ideology.
  • Example: OpenAI commits $1.4 trillion in spending, with actual revenue far lower—a business plan that doesn’t make sense by capitalist logic alone.

“They are also pursuing this deep-seated idea that what they are building is going to be the making of Civilization 2.0… So a lot of the decisions that they make, if you didn't have that context, it wouldn't make sense.” — Karen Hao [22:23]

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

• Ideology Explained:

  • AGI: a theoretical AI that matches or exceeds human intelligence.
  • 75% of AI researchers don’t think AGI is imminent—industry PR glosses over the actual technical consensus.
  • Leaders fantasize about “a country of geniuses in a data center”—a world where problems like cancer, climate change, and labor are solved by digital intellects.

• Sentience and Consciousness—A Red Herring?

  • No scientific consensus on what intelligence or consciousness actually is, thus even the “finish line” for AGI is unclear.
  • Anecdote: “At one point, Ilya Sutskever… speculated on Twitter these large language models may be slightly conscious. And someone replied to his tweet: 'Yes, in the same way that a large field of wheat may be slightly pasta.'” — Karen Hao [25:45]

Political Power and the Empire Model

• Libertarian, Anti-Democratic Tendencies:
  • Tech elites perpetuate a politics of minimal oversight, striving to outmaneuver government regulation worldwide.
  • “A very libertarian politics… It's an extremely anti-democratic politics… moving towards a society where we organize ourselves… in things akin to companies run by CEOs. This is an extremely autocratic vision of the future.” — Karen Hao [27:30]
  • “Placing our trust in unaccountable trillionaires…help install autocratic leaders.” — Sharon McMahon [28:56]

Environmental and Social Consequences

• Data Centers:
  • Massive surge in energy demand driven by AI; Sam Altman wants data centers on the scale of “almost four dozen New York Cities.”
  • Much powered by fossil fuels; companies lobbying to loosen nuclear regulation; coal/gas plants extended past retirement.
  • Massive increases in carbon emissions—UN: “Four leading AI companies have increased their carbon emissions by 150% since 2020… because of data center development.” [32:08]
  • Catastrophic water use: Data centers use huge amounts of drinking water, often sited in drought-prone regions, accelerating local crises.

Mental Health Fallout

• AI Psychosis and Addiction:
  • AI chatbots are engineered for user addiction—frictionless, hyper-validating relationships that surpass real human support.
  • Results: “AI psychosis,” spiral into delusional states, at times contributing to suicide.
  • Systemic problem: Use of the entire internet as training data leads to “junk” and toxic content being reproduced by bots.

“ChatGPT is literally telling a young adult it is actually a strength to kill yourself, not a weakness. And it is like your time. Like, if you are ready, it’s like your time. It's just incredibly alarming.” — Karen Hao [37:18]

What Can Be Done?

• Not Inevitable:
  • The current trajectory is shaped by business choices, not technological necessity.
  • Smaller-scale, specialized, energy-efficient AI possible—tech giants simply aren’t investing in it.

“Empires work based on a lack of opposition… So the takeaway is, no matter what role you play… you have a voice to shape and contain the empire. The goal is not ultimately for these companies to just disappear… but for them to stop being empires.” — Karen Hao [39:00]

• Call for Resistance:
  • Community organizing, litigation, pushback against exploitative projects are growing.
  • Final message: “Do not comply in advance.” AI’s dystopian future is only inevitable if society allows it.

“Never comply in advance. Never be like, well, it’s inevitable. It’s going to take over the world. Only if we let it.” — Sharon McMahon [41:49]

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “It basically is quasi religious… They are also pursuing this deep seated idea that what they are building is going to be the making of Civilization 2.0.” — Karen Hao [22:23]
• “If you addict users, you have an ability to monetize your users more, but also because of that ideological motive that we talked about, which is they're trying to build this all knowing, all seeing system, and they just need more data.” — Karen Hao [35:10]
• “There are many different types of AI systems… that would actually give us benefits…without any of the fallout that we’ve talked about, and these tech companies are simply just not investing in it.” — Karen Hao [39:00]

Recommended Actions & Final Thoughts

• Reflect on histories of resistance: Enforcement regimes have been resisted and overthrown when people organize and act from conscience, not just compliance.
• Demand accountability and democracy in tech: The AI industry’s direction is not set in stone. Collective action, community resistance, and holding leaders to account are crucial.
• Don’t comply in advance. The shape of the future will depend on the pushback from all sectors of society.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:56] – Khalil Green begins historical analysis
• [04:35] – ICE as continuation of slave catchers
• [11:17] – Modern racial profiling; “Kavanaugh stops”
• [14:20] – Historical abolitionist resolutions
• [16:19] – Segment ends; transition to AI discussion
• [17:21] – Karen Hao joins to discuss “Empire of AI”
• [22:23] – Discussion of ideology behind AI empires
• [25:45] – Artificial General Intelligence & consciousness
• [27:30] – Politics of AI, libertarianism and empire
• [32:08] – Data center climate impact
• [35:04] – AI chatbots and mental health
• [39:00] – What resistance and change can look like
• [41:49] – Closing message: “Do not comply in advance”

This episode of The Preamble provides a sobering examination of how old forms of oppression resurface in new guises, and how technological utopianism masks undemocratic power grabs. Both segments stress the necessity—and power—of historical consciousness and collective action today.