Jill Lepore warns that algorithmic systems can erode public government

Historian Jill Lepore is warning that AI companies are not just building tools, but absorbing functions that once belonged to democratic government.

In a TechCrunch interview about her upcoming book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, Lepore describes a long-running idea of “government by machines.” Her concern is that algorithmic systems and corporate platforms can make decisions that affect public life while remaining outside normal democratic checks.

Lepore says she is not opposed to technology itself. Her criticism is aimed at the political story some technology leaders tell: that software can replace slow, contested public institutions with more efficient automated systems. She argues that this can mystify power rather than make it more accountable.

The debate matters because AI is increasingly used in administration, hiring, education, policing, benefits, and workplace decisions. The practical question is who gets to challenge those systems when they make mistakes or quietly change the rules.