Analyzing data from Silicon Valley ventures and founders prosecuted for fraud

Historian Jill Lepore argues that tech companies are eroding the foundations of democracy by assuming the roles of government. In her upcoming book "The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State," Lepore contends that private corporations are increasingly taking on state functions, replacing the traditional liberal democratic nation-state.

She likens this shift to a return to tyranny and mystification, driven by algorithms, corporations, and machines. Lepore, a Harvard historian and Pulitzer Prize winner, emphasizes that while she is not anti-technologist, she objects to the ways in which corporations have assumed state responsibilities without public consent. The rise of "the artificial state" marks an inevitable decline in democracy and equal rights, she asserts, as the nation-state is supplanted by machine-driven governance.