WorldNow | Big Tech & the Future of War
Who will shape the future of war – the Pentagon or Silicon Valley?
Big Tech is transforming the battlefield. Artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons, drones, and private technology companies are changing not only how wars are fought, but who holds power over the technologies that define national security.
Sharon Weinberger, author of Valley of Death: How Big Tech is Fueling the Future of War and veteran national security correspondent, joins WorldNow for an inside look at Silicon Valley’s growing influence on the Pentagon – and the technologies that could determine the next era of warfare.
Meet the Guest: Sharon Weinberger, Editor-in-Chief of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
Sharon Weinberger has been writing on national security issues for more than 25 years, and was most recently the National Security Editor at The Wall Street Journal from 2022 to 2026. Previously, she was the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Yahoo News, and before that, the executive editor for news at Foreign Policy magazine. She is the author of the forthcoming book Valley of Death: How Big Tech Is Fueling the Future of War. Her prior books include The Imagineers of War, A Nuclear Family Vacation and Imaginary Weapons.
Weinberger was a 2026 Omidyar Network reporter-in-residence and has also held fellowships at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, MIT’s Knight Science Journalism program, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Nature and WIRED, among many other publications. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and lives in Washington, D.C.
Meet the Host
Jim Falk is Vice Chairman of the Board of Global Santa Fe, a member organization of the World Affairs Councils of America. He is the host of WorldNow with Jim Falk and the producer and host of The Forum, the weekly public affairs program on KSFR-FM, Santa Fe Community Radio (KSFR.org). A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Falk led the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth as President and CEO from 2001 to 2021, helping expand the organization’s role as one of the nation’s leading forums for international affairs and public policy. His guests have included diplomats, senior intelligence officials, policymakers, military leaders, scholars, journalists, and bestselling authors from around the world. Through WorldNow and The Forum, he continues his commitment to fostering informed, civil dialogue on the international, political, social, and cultural issues shaping our world.
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