Historian Jill Lepore argues that technology companies are increasingly taking on roles traditionally associated with democratic governments, a development she examines in her upcoming book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State. Lepore told TechCrunch that her concern is not with technology itself, but with private corporations assuming functions of the state without public consent.
Lepore, a Harvard professor and New Yorker staff writer, recently won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in History for We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution. Her new book traces the idea of government by machines and examines how technological systems and private companies have become increasingly involved in functions once associated with public institutions.
She described this concept as the “artificial state,” which she sees as both a political idea and an emerging form of governance. Lepore argued that some technology entrepreneurs have explicitly discussed moving beyond traditional nation-states, while companies have adopted concepts that resemble political institutions.
From Personal Computers to AI Governance
Lepore traced part of the modern history back to Apple’s 1984 Macintosh advertisement, which framed personal computing as an alternative to centralized technological control. She argued that similar language later appeared around social media and AI, where companies increasingly described their products using ideas associated with democracy and government.
Examples include Twitter promoting itself as a digital town hall, Meta establishing its Oversight Board, and Anthropic creating a constitution to guide Claude’s behavior. Lepore also cited comments from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about the possibility of an AI president as examples of technology executives adopting language traditionally associated with political institutions.
She said Twitter illustrated how those ideas can develop gradually. The service began as a social platform but later became heavily used by politicians, eventually positioning itself as a place for public political discussion despite its users not representing the electorate as a whole.
Science Fiction Shapes Lepore’s Argument
The second half of Lepore’s book examines science fiction stories in which machines gradually assume human and governmental functions. She highlighted E.M. Forster’s 1909 story The Machine Stops, in which people become dependent on a system that provides nearly everything they need.
Lepore argued that some technology executives interpret science fiction warnings as models for technological development. She singled out Elon Musk, saying some of the stories and writers he admires conflict with his stated political positions.
Her criticism also extends to how the technology sector interprets historical change. Lepore previously challenged Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation in her 2014 New Yorker essay, “The Disruption Machine,” arguing that the theory did not adequately explain broader historical change.
Lepore said historians and technologists should have more direct conversations about how societies responded to earlier technologies, including the development of laws, regulations and other safeguards around automobiles. She said democratic decisions about newer technologies should similarly involve the people affected by them.
Featured image credits: Michael Muraz
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