Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 Wed, 13 May 2026 06:05:14 -0400 https://dair-institute.org/maiht3k en-us © 2026 Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 yes c07dc0a2-9bb3-5f31-8b80-d3fb3b230d78 Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna episodic true Artificial Intelligence has too much hype. In this podcast, linguist Emily M. Bender and sociologist Alex Hanna break down the AI hype, separate fact from fiction, and science from bloviation. They're joined by special guests and talk about everything, from machine consciousness to science fiction, to political economy to art made by machines.]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) ai, artificial intelligence, technology, hype, tech criticism Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna https://storage.buzzsprout.com/nbr2t4ckk58jfmstgrkyyz57axo1?.jpg Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 https://dair-institute.org/maiht3k Alex Hanna Emily M. Bender Hotter Than (AI) Hell, 2026.04.20 Hotter Than (AI) Hell, 2026.04.20 The weather’s getting warmer, so what better time to take a trip to the hottest place in the universe — Fresh AI Hell! Emily and Alex take a spin through more than 30 hype artifacts, with topics including medicine, data centers, and fake people.

Fresh AI Hell regions visited:

  • AI bubble + data centers
  • Fake people
  • Medicine
  • This is your brain on ChatGPT
  • Policy + privacy

See the show notes on Peertube for a full list of artifacts referenced.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> The weather’s getting warmer, so what better time to take a trip to the hottest place in the universe — Fresh AI Hell! Emily and Alex take a spin through more than 30 hype artifacts, with topics including medicine, data centers, and fake people.

Fresh AI Hell regions visited:

  • AI bubble + data centers
  • Fake people
  • Medicine
  • This is your brain on ChatGPT
  • Policy + privacy

See the show notes on Peertube for a full list of artifacts referenced.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-19167650 Wed, 13 May 2026 03:00:00 -0700 3337 ai hype, artificial intelligence, ai, llms, ai hell, generative ai 77 full false There's No Ghost in the Machine (with Carmen Maria Machado), 2026.04.13 There's No Ghost in the Machine (with Carmen Maria Machado), 2026.04.13 Why are some writers and publishers so excited to automate their work? Author Carmen Maria Machado joins Alex and Emily to unpack what writers are missing when they hand off their work to chatbots, and the underlying issues this reveals in the publishing industry. Plus, we resolve to keep fan fiction a human endeavor!

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere.

Find tickets to our April 30th live show here!

References:
- "I wrote a novel using AI. Writers must accept artificial intelligence."
- AFT shares tips for "Harnessing the Best of AI"

Fresh AI Hell:
- "With Teens Comfortable Confiding in AI, Should Schools Embrace It for Mental Health Care?"
- Longread on the use of automation by the British government
- "OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters"
- UN brief on "AI Deception"
- Reader's Digest cover on "Making Friends with AI"
- The only good "AI acceptance" policy

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Why are some writers and publishers so excited to automate their work? Author Carmen Maria Machado joins Alex and Emily to unpack what writers are missing when they hand off their work to chatbots, and the underlying issues this reveals in the publishing industry. Plus, we resolve to keep fan fiction a human endeavor!

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere.

Find tickets to our April 30th live show here!

References:
- "I wrote a novel using AI. Writers must accept artificial intelligence."
- AFT shares tips for "Harnessing the Best of AI"

Fresh AI Hell:
- "With Teens Comfortable Confiding in AI, Should Schools Embrace It for Mental Health Care?"
- Longread on the use of automation by the British government
- "OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters"
- UN brief on "AI Deception"
- Reader's Digest cover on "Making Friends with AI"
- The only good "AI acceptance" policy

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-19087169 Tue, 28 Apr 2026 03:00:00 -0700 3217 artificial intelligence, ai, ai hype, literature, publishing, fan fiction, carmen maria machado 76 full false Uber for Military Surveillance (with Niamh McIntyre), 2026.03.30 Uber for Military Surveillance (with Niamh McIntyre), 2026.03.30 The people who make automated translation possible are often low-paid gig workers. Usually, they don't even know who they're really working for — and it might be the US military. Reporter Niamh McIntyre joins Alex and Emily to dissect how one data labeling company presents its work, based her investigation into the experiences of East African employees.

Niamh McIntyre is a senior reporter at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) in London, covering AI, labor, and surveillance tech. She was 2023 AI Accountability Fellow at the Pulitzer Center, and prior to joining TBIJ, spent four years as a data journalist at The Guardian.

Find tickets to our April 30th live show here!

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> The people who make automated translation possible are often low-paid gig workers. Usually, they don't even know who they're really working for — and it might be the US military. Reporter Niamh McIntyre joins Alex and Emily to dissect how one data labeling company presents its work, based her investigation into the experiences of East African employees.

Niamh McIntyre is a senior reporter at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) in London, covering AI, labor, and surveillance tech. She was 2023 AI Accountability Fellow at the Pulitzer Center, and prior to joining TBIJ, spent four years as a data journalist at The Guardian.

Find tickets to our April 30th live show here!

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-19022825 Thu, 16 Apr 2026 03:00:00 -0700 3224 AI, artificial intelligence, ai hype, Appen, gig work, US military, machine translation, automated translation, data workers, data labeling 75 full false Data Centers Go Nuclear (with Maia Woluchem and Dr. Livia Garofalo), 2026.03.09 Data Centers Go Nuclear (with Maia Woluchem and Dr. Livia Garofalo), 2026.03.09 We knew that the energy demands of data centers were preventing dirty energy sources from being sunsetted.  Now hyperscalers are reaching even further, resurrecting Pennsylvania's infamous Three Mile Island. Emily and Alex are joined by Maia Woluchem and Dr. Livia Garofalo, who have researched the impacts of data center construction across PA.

Maia Woluchem and Livia Garofalo are with the Trustworthy Infrastructures program at Data & Society. Their latest article, "Pennsylvania is perfect," is part of the New Internationalist's AI–themed issue.

References:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> We knew that the energy demands of data centers were preventing dirty energy sources from being sunsetted.  Now hyperscalers are reaching even further, resurrecting Pennsylvania's infamous Three Mile Island. Emily and Alex are joined by Maia Woluchem and Dr. Livia Garofalo, who have researched the impacts of data center construction across PA.

Maia Woluchem and Livia Garofalo are with the Trustworthy Infrastructures program at Data & Society. Their latest article, "Pennsylvania is perfect," is part of the New Internationalist's AI–themed issue.

References:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18933682 Tue, 31 Mar 2026 03:00:00 -0700 3432 ai hype, artificial intelligence, ai, data centers, pennsylvania, nuclear energy, hyperscale 74 full false Data Centers in Space!? (with Dr. Adam Becker), 2026.03.02 Data Centers in Space!? (with Dr. Adam Becker), 2026.03.02 Data centers are overburdening the planet, so tech billionaires have a new scheme — put 'em in space! Astrophysicist Dr. Adam Becker joins Alex and Emily to launch this plan into the sun. We unpack all the reasons that this hilariously terrible idea will never be viable outside of sci-fi-villain fantasies.

Dr. Adam Becker is the author of More Everything Forever, a book about the terrible plans that tech billionaires have for the future and why they don’t work. Keep an eye out for his new podcast, Dreaming Against the Machine, which is launching soon.

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Data centers are overburdening the planet, so tech billionaires have a new scheme — put 'em in space! Astrophysicist Dr. Adam Becker joins Alex and Emily to launch this plan into the sun. We unpack all the reasons that this hilariously terrible idea will never be viable outside of sci-fi-villain fantasies.

Dr. Adam Becker is the author of More Everything Forever, a book about the terrible plans that tech billionaires have for the future and why they don’t work. Keep an eye out for his new podcast, Dreaming Against the Machine, which is launching soon.

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18844094 Tue, 17 Mar 2026 03:00:00 -0700 3218 ai, ai hype, artificial intelligence, spacex, starcloud, data centers, data center construction, outer space, space-based ai 73 full false How the War Department Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI (with Naomi Klein), 2026.02.09 How the War Department Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI (with Naomi Klein), 2026.02.09 AI boosters and the US military are engaged in a lethal love affair. Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein joins Emily and Alex to discuss how glitchy technology supports global imperialism — and vice versa. Plus, we explore which Dr. Strangelove characters are currently running the US war machine.

Naomi Klein is a columnist for The Guardian and the international bestselling author of nine books published in over 35 languages. Her new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World, written with Astra Taylor, will be published in September 2026.

References:

Previous episodes referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> AI boosters and the US military are engaged in a lethal love affair. Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein joins Emily and Alex to discuss how glitchy technology supports global imperialism — and vice versa. Plus, we explore which Dr. Strangelove characters are currently running the US war machine.

Naomi Klein is a columnist for The Guardian and the international bestselling author of nine books published in over 35 languages. Her new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World, written with Astra Taylor, will be published in September 2026.

References:

Previous episodes referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18749317 Thu, 26 Feb 2026 03:00:00 -0800 3122 artificial intelligence, ai, ai hype, big tech, department of war, us military, military industrial complex, us imperialism, naomi klein 72 full false A Bad Case of Hype-itis, 2026.02.02 A Bad Case of Hype-itis, 2026.02.02 Move over Dr. Google, Dr. ChatGPT is here, and it's even worse as a medical intervention! Alex and Emily scrub in to slice up some harmful new nonsense in the world of "AI" for medicine. What's the cure for an expensive and inaccessible health care system? One thing's for sure — it's not AI hype.

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Move over Dr. Google, Dr. ChatGPT is here, and it's even worse as a medical intervention! Alex and Emily scrub in to slice up some harmful new nonsense in the world of "AI" for medicine. What's the cure for an expensive and inaccessible health care system? One thing's for sure — it's not AI hype.

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18665005 Thu, 12 Feb 2026 03:00:00 -0800 3380 ai hype, artificial intelligence, llms, openai, chatgpt health, openevidence, health, health care 71 full false Hell All the Way Down, 2022–2025 Hell All the Way Down, 2022–2025 This is a special episode, and it’s not like our usual livestream recordings. Instead, our producer Ozzy dug through the Fresh AI Hell archives to create a supercut of Alex's improvised transitions. She's made up dozens of skits and songs about the demons of AI Hell, based on weekly prompts from Emily and listeners. Finally, hear all the lore together in one place!

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> This is a special episode, and it’s not like our usual livestream recordings. Instead, our producer Ozzy dug through the Fresh AI Hell archives to create a supercut of Alex's improvised transitions. She's made up dozens of skits and songs about the demons of AI Hell, based on weekly prompts from Emily and listeners. Finally, hear all the lore together in one place!

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18587684 Fri, 30 Jan 2026 03:00:00 -0800 2434 ai hype, ai hell, ai, artificial intelligence, fresh ai hell, generative ai, ai bubble, large language models, llms bonus false Wrapping Up a Hellish 2025, 2025.12.15 Wrapping Up a Hellish 2025, 2025.12.15 For our last recording of 2025, Emily and Alex take on a TIME article naming the "architects of AI" as their person of the year. We also look back at the year in AI nonsense, and share findings from our Fresh AI Hell Wrapped. Happy Hype-y New Year!

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> For our last recording of 2025, Emily and Alex take on a TIME article naming the "architects of AI" as their person of the year. We also look back at the year in AI nonsense, and share findings from our Fresh AI Hell Wrapped. Happy Hype-y New Year!

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18496243 Tue, 13 Jan 2026 03:00:00 -0800 3509 artificial intelligence, ai, ai hype, ai hell, 2025, year in review, happy new year 70 full false Defining AGI: Oops! All Eugenics, 2025.12.08 Defining AGI: Oops! All Eugenics, 2025.12.08 There's a new definition of artificial general intelligence in town, and unsurprisingly... it's bad! Alex and Emily rip up the tissue-paper-thin premises behind this latest attempt to define "intelligence." Plus, we discover that AI hypers love using logos that look like buttholes.

References:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> There's a new definition of artificial general intelligence in town, and unsurprisingly... it's bad! Alex and Emily rip up the tissue-paper-thin premises behind this latest attempt to define "intelligence." Plus, we discover that AI hypers love using logos that look like buttholes.

References:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18429157 Tue, 30 Dec 2025 03:00:00 -0800 3301 AI, artificial intelligence, AGI, artificial general intelligence, eugenics 69 full false This is What Algo-cracy Looks Like, 2025.12.01 This is What Algo-cracy Looks Like, 2025.12.01 Tech leaders are pushing the idea that automation can strengthen democracy — but as usual, their bold suggestions are based on castles made of sand. Alex and Emily tear down some flimsy arguments for AI governance, exposing their incorrect assumptions about the democratic process.

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Tech leaders are pushing the idea that automation can strengthen democracy — but as usual, their bold suggestions are based on castles made of sand. Alex and Emily tear down some flimsy arguments for AI governance, exposing their incorrect assumptions about the democratic process.

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18352083 Tue, 16 Dec 2025 03:00:00 -0800 3554 ai, ai hype, artificial intelligence, democracy, government automation, tech policy 68 full false You Talked to Workers for This Labor Research... Right? (with Sophie Song), 2025.11.17 You Talked to Workers for This Labor Research... Right? (with Sophie Song), 2025.11.17 Last month, Senate Democrats warned that "Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade." Ironically, they used ChatGPT to come to that conclusion. DAIR Research Associate Sophie Song joins us to unpack the issues when self-professed worker advocates use chatbots for "research."

Sophie Song is a researcher, organizer, and advocate working at the intersection of tech and social justice. They’re a research associate at DAIR, where they're working with Alex on building the Luddite Lab Resource Hub.

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Last month, Senate Democrats warned that "Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade." Ironically, they used ChatGPT to come to that conclusion. DAIR Research Associate Sophie Song joins us to unpack the issues when self-professed worker advocates use chatbots for "research."

Sophie Song is a researcher, organizer, and advocate working at the intersection of tech and social justice. They’re a research associate at DAIR, where they're working with Alex on building the Luddite Lab Resource Hub.

References:

Also referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18283192 Tue, 02 Dec 2025 03:00:00 -0800 3194 artificial intelligence, ai, ai hype, llms, chatgpt, labor, labor research, labor policy 67 full false Drag It All To Hell, 2025.10.27 Drag It All To Hell, 2025.10.27 It's been six months since our last all-Hell episode! In honor of Halloween season, we take a long journey into the very scary Fresh AI Hell mines. Topics include terrifying uses of AI in education, scientific research, and politics — plus, some delicious palate cleansers along the way.

AI bubble: bigger than dot-com bust?

No one wants to pay for ChatGPT

Meta lays off 600 from AI unit

AI data centers: an even bigger disaster than we thought

Public universities anticipate data center-driven power outages

Chaser: Deloitte has to pay back Albanese government after using AI in report

"AI" schools are "dead classrooms"

Fake sources in "ethical AI" education report

Parents letting kids play with AI

Startup sells 'synthetic influencers'

AI-powered textbooks fail to make the grade

Chaser: "High-reliability" AI slop

Nature offers "AI-powered research assistant"

AI bots wrote all papers at this conference

"AI" reviewing at AAAI

AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and POC

Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT

Chaser: Microsoft blocks Israel's use of its technology

German initiative uses "AI" for voter education

Police gunshot detection mics will listen for human voices

SF's AI chatbot for RV dwellers

Cuomo campaign posts racist AI slop

DHS Ordered OpenAI To Share User Data

Chaser: LA County moves to limit license plate tracking

A new form of eugenics

"AI Superintelligence" prohibition letter

Emad Mostaque's LLM blurbs

Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery

Chaser: The hot new trend in mark

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> It's been six months since our last all-Hell episode! In honor of Halloween season, we take a long journey into the very scary Fresh AI Hell mines. Topics include terrifying uses of AI in education, scientific research, and politics — plus, some delicious palate cleansers along the way.

AI bubble: bigger than dot-com bust?

No one wants to pay for ChatGPT

Meta lays off 600 from AI unit

AI data centers: an even bigger disaster than we thought

Public universities anticipate data center-driven power outages

Chaser: Deloitte has to pay back Albanese government after using AI in report

"AI" schools are "dead classrooms"

Fake sources in "ethical AI" education report

Parents letting kids play with AI

Startup sells 'synthetic influencers'

AI-powered textbooks fail to make the grade

Chaser: "High-reliability" AI slop

Nature offers "AI-powered research assistant"

AI bots wrote all papers at this conference

"AI" reviewing at AAAI

AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and POC

Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT

Chaser: Microsoft blocks Israel's use of its technology

German initiative uses "AI" for voter education

Police gunshot detection mics will listen for human voices

SF's AI chatbot for RV dwellers

Cuomo campaign posts racist AI slop

DHS Ordered OpenAI To Share User Data

Chaser: LA County moves to limit license plate tracking

A new form of eugenics

"AI Superintelligence" prohibition letter

Emad Mostaque's LLM blurbs

Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery

Chaser: The hot new trend in mark

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18135214 Tue, 18 Nov 2025 03:00:00 -0800 3404 artificial intelligence, ai, generative ai, ai hype, ai bubble, large language models, llms 66 full false Crunching the Numbers (with Decca Muldowney), 2025.10.20 Crunching the Numbers (with Decca Muldowney), 2025.10.20 So-called AI tools are increasingly infiltrating newsrooms, particularly when it comes to data analysis. DAIR writer-in-residence Decca Muldowney joins us to discuss the need for journalists to distinguish between "AI" and reliable, verifiable research methods.

Decca Muldowney is a journalist and writer who was our fact checker for The AI Con. She's also a writer-in-residence and web editor at the Distributed AI Research Institute.

References:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> So-called AI tools are increasingly infiltrating newsrooms, particularly when it comes to data analysis. DAIR writer-in-residence Decca Muldowney joins us to discuss the need for journalists to distinguish between "AI" and reliable, verifiable research methods.

Decca Muldowney is a journalist and writer who was our fact checker for The AI Con. She's also a writer-in-residence and web editor at the Distributed AI Research Institute.

References:

Fresh AI Hell:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18101370 Thu, 30 Oct 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3380 artificial intelligence, ai, ai hype, llms, data analysis, data journalism 65 full false Building Worlds Through Better Reading (with Reo Eveleth), 2025.09.29 Building Worlds Through Better Reading (with Reo Eveleth), 2025.09.29 Powerful AI boosters claim to love science fiction novels, but why do they always seem to take the wrong lessons from them? Reporter and writer Reo Eveleth joins us to discuss the ways tech leaders misuse storytelling, and how we can avoid their visions to imagine better futures.

Reo Eveleth is a reporter, writer, and co-founder of COYOTE Media Collective. They created the hit independent show Flash Forward, which they also turned into a book of the same name. Reo’s work has been nominated for a Peabody, an Emmy, and an Eisner Award.

References:

Also Referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Correction: We misstated Lee Ostertag's name during the livestream for this episode. We apologize for the error!

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Powerful AI boosters claim to love science fiction novels, but why do they always seem to take the wrong lessons from them? Reporter and writer Reo Eveleth joins us to discuss the ways tech leaders misuse storytelling, and how we can avoid their visions to imagine better futures.

Reo Eveleth is a reporter, writer, and co-founder of COYOTE Media Collective. They created the hit independent show Flash Forward, which they also turned into a book of the same name. Reo’s work has been nominated for a Peabody, an Emmy, and an Eisner Award.

References:

Also Referenced:

Fresh AI Hell:

Correction: We misstated Lee Ostertag's name during the livestream for this episode. We apologize for the error!

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-18003686 Tue, 14 Oct 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3419 artificial intelligence, ai, ai hype, science fiction, speculative fiction, dystopia, sci fi 64 full false Three Years of Ridicule as Praxis, 2025.09.19 Three Years of Ridicule as Praxis, 2025.09.19 It's Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000's third birthday! To celebrate, Emily and Alex respond to listener questions about the show, and reflect on the past and future of AI hype. Topics range from how to talk to your kids about LLMs, to what the MAIHT3k birthday cake looks like.

Artifacts referenced:

AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark

Data and its (dis)contents

Stochastic Parrots Day

Dr. Casey Fiesler on TikTok

Dr. Nicole Holliday on TikTok

Alex and Emily’s media appearances about The AI Con

Emily and Alex on The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

Emily’s interview with Dr. Carl Rhodes

Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire

October 21st event for The AI Con

FAccT AI Workers’ Inquiry Panel

Emily’s presentation at UNESCO Digital Learning Week — Paper version on pp.41-45 here

A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In.

Fresh AI Hell:

Meet the Robot Using AI to Ink Your Next Tattoo

Medicare Will Start Paying AI Companies a Share of Any Claims They Automatically Reject

Taco Bell AI drive-through

Can AI doulas improve maternal health?

Countries are struggling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers

Bluesky post about Business Insider

OpenAI

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> It's Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000's third birthday! To celebrate, Emily and Alex respond to listener questions about the show, and reflect on the past and future of AI hype. Topics range from how to talk to your kids about LLMs, to what the MAIHT3k birthday cake looks like.

Artifacts referenced:

AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark

Data and its (dis)contents

Stochastic Parrots Day

Dr. Casey Fiesler on TikTok

Dr. Nicole Holliday on TikTok

Alex and Emily’s media appearances about The AI Con

Emily and Alex on The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

Emily’s interview with Dr. Carl Rhodes

Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire

October 21st event for The AI Con

FAccT AI Workers’ Inquiry Panel

Emily’s presentation at UNESCO Digital Learning Week — Paper version on pp.41-45 here

A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In.

Fresh AI Hell:

Meet the Robot Using AI to Ink Your Next Tattoo

Medicare Will Start Paying AI Companies a Share of Any Claims They Automatically Reject

Taco Bell AI drive-through

Can AI doulas improve maternal health?

Countries are struggling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers

Bluesky post about Business Insider

OpenAI

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-17927752 Wed, 01 Oct 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3342 artificial intelligence, ai, ai hype, llms, chatgpt 63 full false The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie Harrison Dupré), 2025.08.18 The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie Harrison Dupré), 2025.08.18 Talking to chatbots can have serious mental health consequences — fueling delusions and leading users away from consensus reality. Futurism writer Maggie Harrison Dupré joins us to unpack the hype around AI therapists, based on her groundbreaking reporting on "AI psychosis."

Maggie Harrison Dupré is an award-winning tech journalist at Futurism who’s reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping media, information, humans, and our real and digital lives.


References:

How AI Is Expanding The Mental Health Market

He Had Dangerous Delusions. ChatGPT Admitted It Made Them Worse.

OpenAI: What we're optimizing ChatGPT for


Also referenced:

Gov Pritzker Signs Legislation Prohibiting AI Therapy in Illinois

People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions

Stanford: New study warns of risks in AI mental health tools


Fresh AI Hell:

Bluesky post about DEI by chatbot

How AI is being used by police departments to help draft reports

Politico's recent AI experiments shouldn’t be subject to newsroom editorial standards, its editors testify

UK Asks People to Delete Emails In Order to Save Water During Drought

Sam Altman says 'yes,' AI is in a bubble

Google's AI pointed him to a customer service number. It was a scam.

Mastodon post about Dieter Roth's Literaturwürste

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Talking to chatbots can have serious mental health consequences — fueling delusions and leading users away from consensus reality. Futurism writer Maggie Harrison Dupré joins us to unpack the hype around AI therapists, based on her groundbreaking reporting on "AI psychosis."

Maggie Harrison Dupré is an award-winning tech journalist at Futurism who’s reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping media, information, humans, and our real and digital lives.


References:

How AI Is Expanding The Mental Health Market

He Had Dangerous Delusions. ChatGPT Admitted It Made Them Worse.

OpenAI: What we're optimizing ChatGPT for


Also referenced:

Gov Pritzker Signs Legislation Prohibiting AI Therapy in Illinois

People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions

Stanford: New study warns of risks in AI mental health tools


Fresh AI Hell:

Bluesky post about DEI by chatbot

How AI is being used by police departments to help draft reports

Politico's recent AI experiments shouldn’t be subject to newsroom editorial standards, its editors testify

UK Asks People to Delete Emails In Order to Save Water During Drought

Sam Altman says 'yes,' AI is in a bubble

Google's AI pointed him to a customer service number. It was a scam.

Mastodon post about Dieter Roth's Literaturwürste

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-17792071 Thu, 11 Sep 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3307 mental health, therapy, ai psychosis, ai hype, artificial intelligence, chatgpt, llms 62 full false Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and Kate Brennan), 2025.08.04 Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and Kate Brennan), 2025.08.04 Trump’s “AI Action Plan” is his latest attempt to turn AI hype into official national policy. Kate Brennan and Sarah Myers West, of the AI Now Institute, join us to dig through this pile of deregulatory gifts to Big Tech.

Dr. Sarah Myers West is co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, and a former senior advisor on AI for the FTC.

Dr. Kate Brennan is associate director of the AI Now Institute, where she spearheads their policy work, informed by a doctorate in law and years of experience in the tech industry.


References:

Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan


Also referenced:

People’s AI Action Plan


Fresh AI Hell:

Medical Pros Risk Malpractice Suits by Avoiding AI Innovation

Google search’s next cash cow

AI Is Coming for the Consultants. Inside McKinsey, ‘This Is Existential.’

The rise of AI tools that write about you when you die

Amazon’s Alexa Fund Invests in ‘Netflix of AI’ Start-Up Fable, Which Launches Showrunner: A Tool for User-Directed TV Shows

In federal lawsuit, students allege Lawrence school district’s AI surveillance tool violates their rights

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Trump’s “AI Action Plan” is his latest attempt to turn AI hype into official national policy. Kate Brennan and Sarah Myers West, of the AI Now Institute, join us to dig through this pile of deregulatory gifts to Big Tech.

Dr. Sarah Myers West is co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, and a former senior advisor on AI for the FTC.

Dr. Kate Brennan is associate director of the AI Now Institute, where she spearheads their policy work, informed by a doctorate in law and years of experience in the tech industry.


References:

Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan


Also referenced:

People’s AI Action Plan


Fresh AI Hell:

Medical Pros Risk Malpractice Suits by Avoiding AI Innovation

Google search’s next cash cow

AI Is Coming for the Consultants. Inside McKinsey, ‘This Is Existential.’

The rise of AI tools that write about you when you die

Amazon’s Alexa Fund Invests in ‘Netflix of AI’ Start-Up Fable, Which Launches Showrunner: A Tool for User-Directed TV Shows

In federal lawsuit, students allege Lawrence school district’s AI surveillance tool violates their rights

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-17713221 Tue, 26 Aug 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3471 ai hype, artificial intelligence, trump administration, donald trump, accelerationism, big tech 61 full false Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox), 2025.07.21 Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox), 2025.07.21 After many months of making fun of the term "vibe coding," Emily and Alex tackle the LLMs-as-coders fad head-on, with help from security researcher Susanna Cox. From one person's screed that proclaims everyone not on the vibe-coding bandwagon to be crazy, to the grandiose claim that LLMs could be the "opposable thumb" of the entire world of computing. It's big yikes, all around.

Susanna Cox is a consulting AI security researcher and a member of the core author team at OWASP AI Exchange.

References:

My AI Skeptic Friends Are All Nuts

LLMs: the opposable thumb of computing

A disastrous day in the life of a vibe coder

Also referenced:

Signal president Meredith Whittaker on the fundamental security problem with agentic AI

The "S" in MCP stands for security

Our Opinions Are Correct: The Turing Test is Bullshit

AI Hell:

Sam Altman: The (gentle) singularity is already here

What do the boosters think reading is, anyway?

Meta's climate model made up fake CO2 removal ideas

Ongoing lawsuit means all your ChatGPT conversations will be saved

"Dance like you're part of the training set"

Some Guy tries to mansplain Signal to…Signal's president

WSJ headline claims ChatGPT "self-reflection", gets dunked

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> After many months of making fun of the term "vibe coding," Emily and Alex tackle the LLMs-as-coders fad head-on, with help from security researcher Susanna Cox. From one person's screed that proclaims everyone not on the vibe-coding bandwagon to be crazy, to the grandiose claim that LLMs could be the "opposable thumb" of the entire world of computing. It's big yikes, all around.

Susanna Cox is a consulting AI security researcher and a member of the core author team at OWASP AI Exchange.

References:

My AI Skeptic Friends Are All Nuts

LLMs: the opposable thumb of computing

A disastrous day in the life of a vibe coder

Also referenced:

Signal president Meredith Whittaker on the fundamental security problem with agentic AI

The "S" in MCP stands for security

Our Opinions Are Correct: The Turing Test is Bullshit

AI Hell:

Sam Altman: The (gentle) singularity is already here

What do the boosters think reading is, anyway?

Meta's climate model made up fake CO2 removal ideas

Ongoing lawsuit means all your ChatGPT conversations will be saved

"Dance like you're part of the training set"

Some Guy tries to mansplain Signal to…Signal's president

WSJ headline claims ChatGPT "self-reflection", gets dunked

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-17654723 Wed, 13 Aug 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3540 artificial intelligence, ai, programming, llms, vibe coding, chatgpt, large language models, data security, agentic ai 60 full false Et Tu, American Federation of Teachers? (with Charles Logan), 2025.07.14 Et Tu, American Federation of Teachers? (with Charles Logan), 2025.07.14 The chatbot boosters are looking for educators to play brand ambassador for more intrusion of so-called "AI" into the classroom. From the American Federation of Teachers' new partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft for a "national academy for AI instruction" to yet more articles extolling the alleged time-saving and future-proofing virtues of LLM-powered ed tech, the hype can feel relentless. Charles Logan joins Alex and Emily for a critical look at the latest propaganda for "AI" in the classroom.

Charles Logan is a former English teacher and current PhD candidate in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University.

References:

Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.

AI isn’t replacing student writing – but it is reshaping it

AFT to Launch National Academy for AI Instruction with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and United Federation of Teachers 

Also referenced:

Tressie McMillan Cottom on "predatory inclusion"

Daniel Greene's "The Access Doctrine"

The Group Chats that Changed America

Fresh AI Hell:

Missouri AG investigating why chatbots don’t like Trump

Gig workers calling ICE on other undocumented gig workers

Tech billionaire Trump adviser Marc Andreessen says universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI

USF makes a PTSD detector...trained on children

People falling in love with Replika chatbots

Elon Musk thirsting over xAI anime construct

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> The chatbot boosters are looking for educators to play brand ambassador for more intrusion of so-called "AI" into the classroom. From the American Federation of Teachers' new partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft for a "national academy for AI instruction" to yet more articles extolling the alleged time-saving and future-proofing virtues of LLM-powered ed tech, the hype can feel relentless. Charles Logan joins Alex and Emily for a critical look at the latest propaganda for "AI" in the classroom.

Charles Logan is a former English teacher and current PhD candidate in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University.

References:

Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.

AI isn’t replacing student writing – but it is reshaping it

AFT to Launch National Academy for AI Instruction with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and United Federation of Teachers 

Also referenced:

Tressie McMillan Cottom on "predatory inclusion"

Daniel Greene's "The Access Doctrine"

The Group Chats that Changed America

Fresh AI Hell:

Missouri AG investigating why chatbots don’t like Trump

Gig workers calling ICE on other undocumented gig workers

Tech billionaire Trump adviser Marc Andreessen says universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI

USF makes a PTSD detector...trained on children

People falling in love with Replika chatbots

Elon Musk thirsting over xAI anime construct

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-17583296 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3658 ed tech, education, k-12, classrooms, teachers, chatgpt, openai, labor unions 59 full false Why "AI" Is a Con: Our Book Launch! (with Vauhini Vara), 2025.05.08 Why "AI" Is a Con: Our Book Launch! (with Vauhini Vara), 2025.05.08 It's finally here! The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want hit the shelves in May. In this special bonus episode, Alex and Emily speak to tech journalist Vauhini Vara at one of the book's online launch events, where they covered the misleading nature of the term "artificial intelligence," why the use of tools like ChatGPT will only ever cheapen human labor and enrich the already powerful, and how people can fight the narrative that these technologies are inevitable.

Vauhini Vara is a technology reporter and writer. Her journalism has been honored by the Asian American Journalists Association, the International Center for Journalists, the McGraw Center for Business Journalism, and others. Her latest book is Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, a work of journalism and memoir about how big technology companies are exploiting human communication — and how we’re complicit in this.

References

Everyone is cheating their way through college (with ChatGPT)

The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World by Allison Pugh

Te Hiku Media

Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence by Dan McQuillan

Refusing Generative AI in Writing Studies

Pennsylvania's SEIU Local 668 wins a victory against AI

Elon Musk's xAI is polluting Black Memphis residents

Possible Futures: An Internet for Our Elders

Better Images of AI

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> It's finally here! The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want hit the shelves in May. In this special bonus episode, Alex and Emily speak to tech journalist Vauhini Vara at one of the book's online launch events, where they covered the misleading nature of the term "artificial intelligence," why the use of tools like ChatGPT will only ever cheapen human labor and enrich the already powerful, and how people can fight the narrative that these technologies are inevitable.

Vauhini Vara is a technology reporter and writer. Her journalism has been honored by the Asian American Journalists Association, the International Center for Journalists, the McGraw Center for Business Journalism, and others. Her latest book is Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, a work of journalism and memoir about how big technology companies are exploiting human communication — and how we’re complicit in this.

References

Everyone is cheating their way through college (with ChatGPT)

The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World by Allison Pugh

Te Hiku Media

Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence by Dan McQuillan

Refusing Generative AI in Writing Studies

Pennsylvania's SEIU Local 668 wins a victory against AI

Elon Musk's xAI is polluting Black Memphis residents

Possible Futures: An Internet for Our Elders

Better Images of AI

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-17459349 Mon, 07 Jul 2025 03:00:00 -0700 4612 book, ai, the ai con, book interview, tech journalism, labor, education, technology full false "Like Magic Intelligence in the Cloud", 2025.05.26 "Like Magic Intelligence in the Cloud", 2025.05.26 Because Sam Altman hates opening his laptop, OpenAI is merging with iPhone guy Jony Ive's design firm in the name of some mysterious new ChatGPT-enabled consumer products: Alex and Emily go full Mystery Science Theater and dissect the announcement video. Plus how tech billionaires like Sam Altman mythologize San Francisco while their money makes it less livable for everyone else.


References:

Sam Altman and Jony Ive are merging (Video)

Emplacedness, real estate, and gentrification in San Francisco

Anthropic? More like anthropomorphic

Karen Hao on her new book "Empire of AI" in conversation with Alex and Emily


Fresh AI Hell:

Don't use ChatGPT to summon demons

AI prompts accidentally left in novels

"AI" tutors are teaching fentanyl recipes

xAI's data center polluting Memphis with unpermitted methane generators

Gemini's on Bluesky - block it

Family uses "AI" generated avatar to give victim impact statement

The market for "AI friends"? Lonely losers

No, LGBTESCREAL isn't a thing

*****

You can check out future streams at on Twitch, and send us any AI Hell you see for future episodes.

Our book, The AI Con, is out! Get your copy now.

Follow Emily: Bluesky/Mastodon
Follow Alex: Bluesky/Mastodon

Music: Toby Menon.
 Product

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Because Sam Altman hates opening his laptop, OpenAI is merging with iPhone guy Jony Ive's design firm in the name of some mysterious new ChatGPT-enabled consumer products: Alex and Emily go full Mystery Science Theater and dissect the announcement video. Plus how tech billionaires like Sam Altman mythologize San Francisco while their money makes it less livable for everyone else.


References:

Sam Altman and Jony Ive are merging (Video)

Emplacedness, real estate, and gentrification in San Francisco

Anthropic? More like anthropomorphic

Karen Hao on her new book "Empire of AI" in conversation with Alex and Emily


Fresh AI Hell:

Don't use ChatGPT to summon demons

AI prompts accidentally left in novels

"AI" tutors are teaching fentanyl recipes

xAI's data center polluting Memphis with unpermitted methane generators

Gemini's on Bluesky - block it

Family uses "AI" generated avatar to give victim impact statement

The market for "AI friends"? Lonely losers

No, LGBTESCREAL isn't a thing

*****

You can check out future streams at on Twitch, and send us any AI Hell you see for future episodes.

Our book, The AI Con, is out! Get your copy now.

Follow Emily: Bluesky/Mastodon
Follow Alex: Bluesky/Mastodon

Music: Toby Menon.
 Product

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-17341004 Thu, 19 Jun 2025 18:00:00 -0700 3590 artificial intelligence, jony ive, sam altman, openai, consumer products, generative ai, chatgpt, san francisco 58 full false The "AI"-Enabled Immigration Panopticon (with Petra Molnar), 2025.05.05 The "AI"-Enabled Immigration Panopticon (with Petra Molnar), 2025.05.05 This week, Alex and Emily talk with anthropologist and immigration lawyer Petra Molnar about the dehumanizing hype of border-enforcement tech. From hoovering up data to hunt anyone of ambiguous citizenship status, to running surveillance of physical borders themselves, "AI" tech is everywhere in the enforcement of national borders. And as companies ranging from Amazon, to NSO Group, to Palantir all profit, this widening of automation threatens a future of faceless human rights violations with no attempts at accountability of any kind.

Petra Molnar is associate director of York University's Refugee Law Lab, and a faculty associate for the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She's also the author of the book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving immigration in the age of artificial intelligence.

References:

Department of Homeland Security: Robot Dogs Take Another Step Towards Deployment at the Border

Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People

Athens prepares to host DEFEA 2025, a major hub for international defence cooperation

Fresh AI Hell:

Meta served teen girls beauty product ads whenever they deleted selfies

Dating app/luxury surveillance leaks personal info

"AI" for subway crime prediction

CA used "AI" to make bar exam questions

CA using "AI" tool to bypass building permit process

Wildly unethical "AI persuasion" research on Reddit users

AI makeup to retouch Holocaust images

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> This week, Alex and Emily talk with anthropologist and immigration lawyer Petra Molnar about the dehumanizing hype of border-enforcement tech. From hoovering up data to hunt anyone of ambiguous citizenship status, to running surveillance of physical borders themselves, "AI" tech is everywhere in the enforcement of national borders. And as companies ranging from Amazon, to NSO Group, to Palantir all profit, this widening of automation threatens a future of faceless human rights violations with no attempts at accountability of any kind.

Petra Molnar is associate director of York University's Refugee Law Lab, and a faculty associate for the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She's also the author of the book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving immigration in the age of artificial intelligence.

References:

Department of Homeland Security: Robot Dogs Take Another Step Towards Deployment at the Border

Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People

Athens prepares to host DEFEA 2025, a major hub for international defence cooperation

Fresh AI Hell:

Meta served teen girls beauty product ads whenever they deleted selfies

Dating app/luxury surveillance leaks personal info

"AI" for subway crime prediction

CA used "AI" to make bar exam questions

CA using "AI" tool to bypass building permit process

Wildly unethical "AI persuasion" research on Reddit users

AI makeup to retouch Holocaust images

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-17236295 Wed, 28 May 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3718 immigration, border tech, ai, surveillance, artificial intelligence, palantir, migration, EU, united states, human rights 57 full false AGI: "Imminent", "Inevitable", and Inane, 2025.04.21 AGI: "Imminent", "Inevitable", and Inane, 2025.04.21 Emily and Alex pore through an elaborate science fiction scenario about the "inevitability" of Artificial General Intelligence or AGI by the year 2027 - which rests atop a foundation of TESCREAL nonsense, and Sinophobia to boot.

References:

AI 2027

Fresh AI Hell:

AI persona bots for undercover cops

Palantir heart eyes Keir Starmer

Anti-vaxxers are grifting off the measles outbreak with AI-formulated supplements

The cost, environmental and otherwise, of being polite to ChatGPT

Actors who sold voice & likeness find it used for scams

Addictive tendencies and ChatGPT (satire)

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

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Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex pore through an elaborate science fiction scenario about the "inevitability" of Artificial General Intelligence or AGI by the year 2027 - which rests atop a foundation of TESCREAL nonsense, and Sinophobia to boot.

References:

AI 2027

Fresh AI Hell:

AI persona bots for undercover cops

Palantir heart eyes Keir Starmer

Anti-vaxxers are grifting off the measles outbreak with AI-formulated supplements

The cost, environmental and otherwise, of being polite to ChatGPT

Actors who sold voice & likeness find it used for scams

Addictive tendencies and ChatGPT (satire)

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-17153034 Wed, 14 May 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3902 agi, artificial intelligence, chatgpt, TESCREAL, generative AI, artificial general intelligence, hype 56 full false AI Hell in a Handbasket, 2025.04.14 AI Hell in a Handbasket, 2025.04.14 It's been 4 months since we've cleared the backlog of Fresh AI Hell and the bullshit is coming in almost too fast to keep up with. But between a page full of awkward unicorns and a seeming slowdown in data center demand, Alex and Emily have more good news than usual to accompany this round of catharsis.

AI Hell:

LLM processing like human language processing (not)

Jack Clark predicting AGI

Sebastian Bubeck says predictions in "sparks" paper have already come true

WIRED puff piece on the Amodeis

Foundation agents & leaning in to the computational metaphor (Fig 1, p14)

Chaser: Trying to recreate the GPT unicorn

The WSJ has an AI bot for all your tax questions

ChatGPT libel

AOL.com uses autogenerated captions about attempted murder

AI coding tools fix bugs by adding bugs

"We teach AGI to think, so you don't have to"

MAGA/DOGE paints teachers as glorified babysitters in push for AI

Chaser: How we are NOT using AI in the classroom

AI benchmarks are self-promoting trash — but regulators keep using them

DOGE is pushing AI tool created as "sandbox" for federal testing

"Psychological profiling" based on social media

The tariffs and ChatGPT

"I was not informed that Microsoft would sell my work to the Israeli military and government"

Pulling back on data centers, Microsoft edition

Abandoned data centers, China edition

Bill Gates: 2 day workweek coming thanks to AI...replacing doctors and teachers??

Chaser: Tesla glue fail schadenfreude

Chaser: Let's talk about the genie trope

Chaser:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> It's been 4 months since we've cleared the backlog of Fresh AI Hell and the bullshit is coming in almost too fast to keep up with. But between a page full of awkward unicorns and a seeming slowdown in data center demand, Alex and Emily have more good news than usual to accompany this round of catharsis.

AI Hell:

LLM processing like human language processing (not)

Jack Clark predicting AGI

Sebastian Bubeck says predictions in "sparks" paper have already come true

WIRED puff piece on the Amodeis

Foundation agents & leaning in to the computational metaphor (Fig 1, p14)

Chaser: Trying to recreate the GPT unicorn

The WSJ has an AI bot for all your tax questions

ChatGPT libel

AOL.com uses autogenerated captions about attempted murder

AI coding tools fix bugs by adding bugs

"We teach AGI to think, so you don't have to"

MAGA/DOGE paints teachers as glorified babysitters in push for AI

Chaser: How we are NOT using AI in the classroom

AI benchmarks are self-promoting trash — but regulators keep using them

DOGE is pushing AI tool created as "sandbox" for federal testing

"Psychological profiling" based on social media

The tariffs and ChatGPT

"I was not informed that Microsoft would sell my work to the Israeli military and government"

Pulling back on data centers, Microsoft edition

Abandoned data centers, China edition

Bill Gates: 2 day workweek coming thanks to AI...replacing doctors and teachers??

Chaser: Tesla glue fail schadenfreude

Chaser: Let's talk about the genie trope

Chaser:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-17065555 Wed, 30 Apr 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3625 large language models, chatgpt, technology, ai, artificial intelligence, generative ai, ai hell 55 full false "AI" Agents, A Single Point of Failure (with Margaret Mitchell), 2025.03.31 "AI" Agents, A Single Point of Failure (with Margaret Mitchell), 2025.03.31 After "AI" stopped meaning anything, the hype salesmen moved on to "AI" "agents", those allegedly indefatigable assistants, allegedly capable of operating your software for you -- whether you need to make a restaurant reservation, book a flight, or book a flight to a restaurant reservation. Hugging Face's Margaret Mitchell joins Emily and Alex to help break down what agents actually are, and what to actually worry about.

References:

PwC launches AI agent operating system to revolutionize AI workflows for enterprises
An Open-Source AI Agent for Doing Tasks on the Web
Scale AI announces multimillion-dollar defense deal, a major step in U.S. military automation

Other references:

Why handing over total control to AI agents would be a huge mistake

Fully Autonomous AI Agents Should Not be Developed

Bender vs. Bubeck: The Great Chatbot Debate: Do LLMs Really Understand?

Democratize art

Fresh AI Hell:

DOGE suggests replacing workers with "AI" (of course)

Vape, or the tamagotchi gets it

"AI" for psychotherapy, still bad, still hyped

Biology (not) of LLMs

Mark Cuban's grifty chatbot

Palate cleanser: "AI is the letdown"
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/tech/apple-ai-artificial-intelligence/index.html

Comic relief: "

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> After "AI" stopped meaning anything, the hype salesmen moved on to "AI" "agents", those allegedly indefatigable assistants, allegedly capable of operating your software for you -- whether you need to make a restaurant reservation, book a flight, or book a flight to a restaurant reservation. Hugging Face's Margaret Mitchell joins Emily and Alex to help break down what agents actually are, and what to actually worry about.

References:

PwC launches AI agent operating system to revolutionize AI workflows for enterprises
An Open-Source AI Agent for Doing Tasks on the Web
Scale AI announces multimillion-dollar defense deal, a major step in U.S. military automation

Other references:

Why handing over total control to AI agents would be a huge mistake

Fully Autonomous AI Agents Should Not be Developed

Bender vs. Bubeck: The Great Chatbot Debate: Do LLMs Really Understand?

Democratize art

Fresh AI Hell:

DOGE suggests replacing workers with "AI" (of course)

Vape, or the tamagotchi gets it

"AI" for psychotherapy, still bad, still hyped

Biology (not) of LLMs

Mark Cuban's grifty chatbot

Palate cleanser: "AI is the letdown"
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/tech/apple-ai-artificial-intelligence/index.html

Comic relief: "

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16990314 Thu, 17 Apr 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3782 artificial intelligence, agentic ai, pwc, azure, anthropic, generative ai, chatbots, ai ethics 54 full false Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday), 2025.03.17 Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday), 2025.03.17 Measuring your talk time? Counting your filler words? What about "analyzing" your "emotions"? Companies that push LLM technology to surveil and summarize video meetings are increasingly offering to (purportedly) analyze your participation and assign your speech some metrics, all in the name of "productivity". Sociolinguist Nicole Holliday joins Alex and Emily to take apart claims about these "AI" meeting feedback tools, and reveal them to be just sparkling bossware, with little insight into how we talk.

Nicole Holliday is Acting Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of California-Berkeley.

Quick note: Our guest for this episode had some sound equipment issues, which unfortunately affected her audio quality.

Main course:

Read AI Review: This AI Reads Emotions During Video Calls

Zoom rebrands existing and introduces new generative AI features

Speech analysis startup releases AI tool that simulates difficult job interview conversation

Fresh AI Hell:

Amazon Echo will send all recordings to Amazon beginning March 28

Trump’s NIST no longer concerned with “safety” or “fairness”

Reporter Kevin Roose is feeling the bullshit

UW’s eScience institute pushing “AI” for information access

OpenAI whines about data being too expensive, with a side of Sinophobia

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Measuring your talk time? Counting your filler words? What about "analyzing" your "emotions"? Companies that push LLM technology to surveil and summarize video meetings are increasingly offering to (purportedly) analyze your participation and assign your speech some metrics, all in the name of "productivity". Sociolinguist Nicole Holliday joins Alex and Emily to take apart claims about these "AI" meeting feedback tools, and reveal them to be just sparkling bossware, with little insight into how we talk.

Nicole Holliday is Acting Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of California-Berkeley.

Quick note: Our guest for this episode had some sound equipment issues, which unfortunately affected her audio quality.

Main course:

Read AI Review: This AI Reads Emotions During Video Calls

Zoom rebrands existing and introduces new generative AI features

Speech analysis startup releases AI tool that simulates difficult job interview conversation

Fresh AI Hell:

Amazon Echo will send all recordings to Amazon beginning March 28

Trump’s NIST no longer concerned with “safety” or “fairness”

Reporter Kevin Roose is feeling the bullshit

UW’s eScience institute pushing “AI” for information access

OpenAI whines about data being too expensive, with a side of Sinophobia

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16894001 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3628 linguistics, speech analysis, openai, zoom, zoom revenue accelerator, large language models, filler words, language, meetings 53 full false The Anti-Bookclub Tackles 'Superagency', 2025.03.03 The Anti-Bookclub Tackles 'Superagency', 2025.03.03 Emily and Alex read a terrible book so you don't have to! Come for a quick overview of LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman's opus of magical thinking, 'Superagency: What could possibly go right with our AI future' -- stay for the ridicule as praxis. Plus, why even this tortuous read offers a bit of comfort about the desperate state of the AI boosters.

References:

The cursèd book itself

AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark

Militants and Citizens: The Politics of Participatory Democracy in Porto Alegre

Fresh AI Hell:

Parents rationalizing exposing kids to AI

Underage, sexualized celebrity bots

Bossware a bad look, actually

CalState faculty union opposes AI initiative

The kids are alright

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex read a terrible book so you don't have to! Come for a quick overview of LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman's opus of magical thinking, 'Superagency: What could possibly go right with our AI future' -- stay for the ridicule as praxis. Plus, why even this tortuous read offers a bit of comfort about the desperate state of the AI boosters.

References:

The cursèd book itself

AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark

Militants and Citizens: The Politics of Participatory Democracy in Porto Alegre

Fresh AI Hell:

Parents rationalizing exposing kids to AI

Underage, sexualized celebrity bots

Bossware a bad look, actually

CalState faculty union opposes AI initiative

The kids are alright

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16819394 Wed, 19 Mar 2025 03:00:00 -0700 3600 artificial intelligence, technology, ai hype, generative ai, llms, chatgpt, reid hoffman, superagency, tech, silicon valley, ceo, linkedin, book 52 full false The War on Knowledge (with Raina Bloom), 2025.02.24 The War on Knowledge (with Raina Bloom), 2025.02.24 In the weeks since January 20, the US information ecosystem has been unraveling fast. (We're looking at you Denali, Gulf of Mexico, and every holiday celebrating people of color and queer people that used to be on Google Calendar.) As the country's unelected South African tech billionaire continues to run previously secure government data through highly questionable LLMs, academic librarian Raina Bloom joins Emily and Alex for a talk about how we organize knowledge, and what happens when generative AI degrades or poison the systems that keep us all accurately -- and contextually -- informed.

​​Raina Bloom is the Reference Services Coordinator for University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

References:

OpenAI tries to 'uncensor' ChatGPT

Elon Musk's DOGE is feeding sensitive federal data into AI to target cuts

Guardian Media Group announces strategic partnership with OpenAI

Elon Musk's AI-fuelled war on human agency

(Post now deleted) A DOGE intern asks Reddit for help with file conversion

When is it safe to use ChatGPT in higher education? Raina recommends the table on page 6 of UNESCO's QuickStart guide.

Fresh AI Hell:

Irish educational body, while acknowledging genAI's problems, still gives LLMs too much credit

From haircuts to dress design, AI slop is creating unrealistic expectations that hurt small businesses

Attorneys still falling for "AI" search

The latest in uncanny valley body horror robotics

Google claims to have developed AI "co-scientist"

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> In the weeks since January 20, the US information ecosystem has been unraveling fast. (We're looking at you Denali, Gulf of Mexico, and every holiday celebrating people of color and queer people that used to be on Google Calendar.) As the country's unelected South African tech billionaire continues to run previously secure government data through highly questionable LLMs, academic librarian Raina Bloom joins Emily and Alex for a talk about how we organize knowledge, and what happens when generative AI degrades or poison the systems that keep us all accurately -- and contextually -- informed.

​​Raina Bloom is the Reference Services Coordinator for University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

References:

OpenAI tries to 'uncensor' ChatGPT

Elon Musk's DOGE is feeding sensitive federal data into AI to target cuts

Guardian Media Group announces strategic partnership with OpenAI

Elon Musk's AI-fuelled war on human agency

(Post now deleted) A DOGE intern asks Reddit for help with file conversion

When is it safe to use ChatGPT in higher education? Raina recommends the table on page 6 of UNESCO's QuickStart guide.

Fresh AI Hell:

Irish educational body, while acknowledging genAI's problems, still gives LLMs too much credit

From haircuts to dress design, AI slop is creating unrealistic expectations that hurt small businesses

Attorneys still falling for "AI" search

The latest in uncanny valley body horror robotics

Google claims to have developed AI "co-scientist"

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16735740 Wed, 05 Mar 2025 06:00:00 -0800 3623 51 full false Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara Kneese), 2025.01.27 Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara Kneese), 2025.01.27 Sam Altman thinks fusion - particularly a company he's personally invested in - can provide the energy we "need" to develop AGI. Meanwhile, what if we just...put data centers on the Moon to save energy? Alex, Emily, and guest Tamara Kneese pour cold water on Silicon Valley's various unhinged, technosolutionist ideas about energy and the environment.

Dr. Tamara Kneese is director of climate, technology and justice at the Data & Society Research Institute

Due to some technical issues during our recording, this week's episode is a bit shorter than usual.

References:

A data center … on the moon??

Sam Altman is banking on fusion

Greenland is the new Mars

“Regenerative finance” in the crypto era

Fears of subprime carbon assets stall crypto mission to save rainforest

Corporate carbon offset company accidentally starts devastating wildfire

The AI/crypto crossoverAI/crypto crossover no one asked for

Blockchains wanted to build a smart city. The state could not sign off on its water rights

On petro-masculinity

Predatory delay and other myths of sustainable AI

Book: Digital Energetics, on Bitcoin/AI computing as a larger energy problem

Fresh AI Hell:

Fake books about indigenous languages

Surveillance company harrasses own employees with cameras

Schoo

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Sam Altman thinks fusion - particularly a company he's personally invested in - can provide the energy we "need" to develop AGI. Meanwhile, what if we just...put data centers on the Moon to save energy? Alex, Emily, and guest Tamara Kneese pour cold water on Silicon Valley's various unhinged, technosolutionist ideas about energy and the environment.

Dr. Tamara Kneese is director of climate, technology and justice at the Data & Society Research Institute

Due to some technical issues during our recording, this week's episode is a bit shorter than usual.

References:

A data center … on the moon??

Sam Altman is banking on fusion

Greenland is the new Mars

“Regenerative finance” in the crypto era

Fears of subprime carbon assets stall crypto mission to save rainforest

Corporate carbon offset company accidentally starts devastating wildfire

The AI/crypto crossoverAI/crypto crossover no one asked for

Blockchains wanted to build a smart city. The state could not sign off on its water rights

On petro-masculinity

Predatory delay and other myths of sustainable AI

Book: Digital Energetics, on Bitcoin/AI computing as a larger energy problem

Fresh AI Hell:

Fake books about indigenous languages

Surveillance company harrasses own employees with cameras

Schoo

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16646605 Wed, 19 Feb 2025 06:00:00 -0800 2794 sam altman, artificial intelligence, chatgpt, openai, environment, technofascism, greenland 50 full false The UK's Misplaced Enthusiasm (with Gina Neff), 2025.01.20 The UK's Misplaced Enthusiasm (with Gina Neff), 2025.01.20 In January, the United Kingdom's new Labour Party prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced a new initiative to go all in on AI in the hopes of big economic returns, with a promise to “mainline” it into the country’s veins: everything from offering public data to private companies, to potentially fast-tracking miniature nuclear power plants to supply energy to data centers. UK-based researcher Gina Neff helps explain why this flashy policy proposal is mostly a blank check for big tech, and has little to offer either the economy or working people.

Gina Neff is executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, and a professor of responsible AI at Queen Mary University of London.

References:

The AI Opportunities Action Plan

‘Mainlined into UK’s veins’: Labour announces huge public rollout of AI

Gina Neff: Can democracy survive AI?

Labour's AI Action Plan - a gift to the far right

Fresh AI Hell:

"AI" tool for predicting how Parliament will react to policy proposals

"AI" detects age based on hand movements

Apple Intelligence misleading summaries of news

Book simplification as a service

CEO doesn't understand why kid turned AI features of toy off

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> In January, the United Kingdom's new Labour Party prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced a new initiative to go all in on AI in the hopes of big economic returns, with a promise to “mainline” it into the country’s veins: everything from offering public data to private companies, to potentially fast-tracking miniature nuclear power plants to supply energy to data centers. UK-based researcher Gina Neff helps explain why this flashy policy proposal is mostly a blank check for big tech, and has little to offer either the economy or working people.

Gina Neff is executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, and a professor of responsible AI at Queen Mary University of London.

References:

The AI Opportunities Action Plan

‘Mainlined into UK’s veins’: Labour announces huge public rollout of AI

Gina Neff: Can democracy survive AI?

Labour's AI Action Plan - a gift to the far right

Fresh AI Hell:

"AI" tool for predicting how Parliament will react to policy proposals

"AI" detects age based on hand movements

Apple Intelligence misleading summaries of news

Book simplification as a service

CEO doesn't understand why kid turned AI features of toy off

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16566739 Wed, 05 Feb 2025 06:00:00 -0800 3732 united kingdom, brexit, artificial intelligence, uk, keir starmer, labour party, ai, llm, data center 49 full false Sam Altman's Fever Dream, 2025.01.13 Sam Altman's Fever Dream, 2025.01.13 Not only is OpenAI's new o3 model allegedly breaking records for how close an LLM can get to the mythical "human-like thinking" of AGI, but Sam Altman has some, uh, reflections for us as he marks two years since the official launch of ChatGPT. Emily and Alex kick off the new year unraveling these truly fantastical stories.

References:

OpenAI o3 Breakthrough High Score on ARC-AGI-Pub

From the blog of Sam Altman: Reflections

More about the ARC Prize

o3's environmental impact

The brain is a computer is a brain

Fresh AI Hell:

"Time to Edit" as a metric predicting the singularity (Contributed by Warai Otoko)

AI 'tasting' colors

An AI...faucet??

Seattle Public Schools calls ChatGPT a "transformative technology"

A GitHub pull request closed because change would have been unfriendly to "AI" chat interface

Cohere working with Palantir

Elsevier rewrites papers with "AI" without telling authors, editors

The UK: mainlining AI straight into their veins

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Not only is OpenAI's new o3 model allegedly breaking records for how close an LLM can get to the mythical "human-like thinking" of AGI, but Sam Altman has some, uh, reflections for us as he marks two years since the official launch of ChatGPT. Emily and Alex kick off the new year unraveling these truly fantastical stories.

References:

OpenAI o3 Breakthrough High Score on ARC-AGI-Pub

From the blog of Sam Altman: Reflections

More about the ARC Prize

o3's environmental impact

The brain is a computer is a brain

Fresh AI Hell:

"Time to Edit" as a metric predicting the singularity (Contributed by Warai Otoko)

AI 'tasting' colors

An AI...faucet??

Seattle Public Schools calls ChatGPT a "transformative technology"

A GitHub pull request closed because change would have been unfriendly to "AI" chat interface

Cohere working with Palantir

Elsevier rewrites papers with "AI" without telling authors, editors

The UK: mainlining AI straight into their veins

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16481095 Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:00:00 -0800 3739 artificial intelligence, ai, chatgpt, openai, sam altman, arc prize, agi, ai hype 48 full false Episode 47: Hell is Other People's AI Hype, December 9 2024 Episode 47: Hell is Other People's AI Hype, December 9 2024 It’s been a long year in the AI hype mines. And no matter how many claims Emily and Alex debunk, there's always a backlog of Fresh AI Hell. This week, another whirlwind attempt to clear it, with plenty of palate cleansers along the way.

Fresh AI Hell:

Part I: Education
Medical residency assignments
"AI generated" UCLA course
"Could ChatGPT get an engineering degree?"
AI letters of recommendation
Chaser: 'AI' isn't Tinkerbell and we don’t have to clap

Part II: Potpourri, as in really rotten
AI x parenting
Et tu, Firefox?
US military tests AI machine gun
"Over-indexing" genAI failings
AI denying social benefits
Chaser: AI 'granny' vs scammers

Part III: The Endangered Information Ecosystem
Fake Emily quote in LLM-written article
Protecting Wikipedia
AI: the new plastic
Google AI on 'dressing'
"AI" archaeology
Misinfo scholar used ChatGPT
OpenAI erases lawsuit evidence
LAT "AI" bias meter
WaPo AI search: The Washington Post burns its own archive

Chaser: ShotSpotter as art

Part IV: Surveillance, AI in science/medicine
Apple patents "body data"
Chatbots "defeat" doctors
Algorithm for healthcare "overuse"
"AI friendships"
"Can LLMs Generate Novel Research Ideas?"
Another LLM for science
Chaser: FTC vs Venntel

Part V: They tell us to believe the hype

Thomas Friedman: AGI is coming
Matteo Wong on o1's 'reasoning'
WIRED editor: believe the hype
Salesforce CEO: The "unlimited age"

Chaser: Emily and Alex's forthcoming book! Pre-order THE AI CON: How to Fight

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> It’s been a long year in the AI hype mines. And no matter how many claims Emily and Alex debunk, there's always a backlog of Fresh AI Hell. This week, another whirlwind attempt to clear it, with plenty of palate cleansers along the way.

Fresh AI Hell:

Part I: Education
Medical residency assignments
"AI generated" UCLA course
"Could ChatGPT get an engineering degree?"
AI letters of recommendation
Chaser: 'AI' isn't Tinkerbell and we don’t have to clap

Part II: Potpourri, as in really rotten
AI x parenting
Et tu, Firefox?
US military tests AI machine gun
"Over-indexing" genAI failings
AI denying social benefits
Chaser: AI 'granny' vs scammers

Part III: The Endangered Information Ecosystem
Fake Emily quote in LLM-written article
Protecting Wikipedia
AI: the new plastic
Google AI on 'dressing'
"AI" archaeology
Misinfo scholar used ChatGPT
OpenAI erases lawsuit evidence
LAT "AI" bias meter
WaPo AI search: The Washington Post burns its own archive

Chaser: ShotSpotter as art

Part IV: Surveillance, AI in science/medicine
Apple patents "body data"
Chatbots "defeat" doctors
Algorithm for healthcare "overuse"
"AI friendships"
"Can LLMs Generate Novel Research Ideas?"
Another LLM for science
Chaser: FTC vs Venntel

Part V: They tell us to believe the hype

Thomas Friedman: AGI is coming
Matteo Wong on o1's 'reasoning'
WIRED editor: believe the hype
Salesforce CEO: The "unlimited age"

Chaser: Emily and Alex's forthcoming book! Pre-order THE AI CON: How to Fight

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16353749 Mon, 30 Dec 2024 06:00:00 -0800 3647 artificial intelligence, ai, chatgpt, ai hell, fresh ai hell, the ai con, large language models, education, science, medicine, surveillance, generative ai 47 full false Episode 46: AGI Funny Business (Model), with Brian Merchant, December 2 2024 Episode 46: AGI Funny Business (Model), with Brian Merchant, December 2 2024 Once upon a time, artificial general intelligence was the only business plan OpenAI seemed to have. Tech journalist Brian Merchant joins Emily and Alex for a time warp to the beginning of the current wave of AI hype, nearly a decade ago. And it sure seemed like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and company were luring investor dollars to their newly-formed venture solely on the hand-wavy promise that someday, LLMs themselves would figure out how to turn a profit.

Brian Merchant is an author, journalist in residence at the AI Now Institute, and co-host of the tech news podcast System Crash.

References:

Elon Musk and partners form nonprofit to stop AI from ruining the world

How Elon Musk and Y Combinator Plan to Stop Computers From Taking Over

Elon Musk's Billion-Dollar AI Plan Is About Far More Than Saving the World

Brian’s recent report on the business model of AGI, for the AI Now Institute: AI Generated Business: The rise of AGI and the rush to find a working revenue model

Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 21: The True Meaning of 'Open Source' (feat. Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld)

Fresh AI Hell:

OpenAI explores advertising as it steps up revenue drive

If an AI company ran Campbell's Soup with the same practices they use to handle data

Humans are the new 'luxury item'

Itching to write a book? AI publisher Spines wants to make a deal

A company pitched Emily her own 'verified avatar'

Don't upload your medical images to chatbots

A look at a pilot program in Georgia

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Once upon a time, artificial general intelligence was the only business plan OpenAI seemed to have. Tech journalist Brian Merchant joins Emily and Alex for a time warp to the beginning of the current wave of AI hype, nearly a decade ago. And it sure seemed like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and company were luring investor dollars to their newly-formed venture solely on the hand-wavy promise that someday, LLMs themselves would figure out how to turn a profit.

Brian Merchant is an author, journalist in residence at the AI Now Institute, and co-host of the tech news podcast System Crash.

References:

Elon Musk and partners form nonprofit to stop AI from ruining the world

How Elon Musk and Y Combinator Plan to Stop Computers From Taking Over

Elon Musk's Billion-Dollar AI Plan Is About Far More Than Saving the World

Brian’s recent report on the business model of AGI, for the AI Now Institute: AI Generated Business: The rise of AGI and the rush to find a working revenue model

Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 21: The True Meaning of 'Open Source' (feat. Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld)

Fresh AI Hell:

OpenAI explores advertising as it steps up revenue drive

If an AI company ran Campbell's Soup with the same practices they use to handle data

Humans are the new 'luxury item'

Itching to write a book? AI publisher Spines wants to make a deal

A company pitched Emily her own 'verified avatar'

Don't upload your medical images to chatbots

A look at a pilot program in Georgia

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16295268 Wed, 18 Dec 2024 03:00:00 -0800 3755 artificial intelligence, AI, generative AI, machine learning, large language models, agi, openai, sam altman, elon musk 46 full false Episode 45: Billionaires, Influencers, and Ed Tech (feat. Adrienne Williams), November 18 2024 Episode 45: Billionaires, Influencers, and Ed Tech (feat. Adrienne Williams), November 18 2024 From Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, billionaires with no education expertise keep using their big names and big dollars to hype LLMs for classrooms. Promising ‘comprehensive AI tutors', or just ‘educator-informed’ tools to address understaffed classrooms, this hype is just another round of Silicon Valley pointing to real problems -- under-supported school systems -- but then directing attention and resources to their favorite toys. Former educator and DAIR research fellow Adrienne Williams joins to explain the problems this tech-solutionist redirection fails to solve, and the new ones it creates.

Adrienne Williams started organizing in 2018 while working as a junior high teacher for a tech owned charter school. She expanded her organizing in 2020 after her work as an Amazon delivery driver, where many of the same issues she saw in charter schools were also in evidence. Adrienne is a Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest with The OpEd Project in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, as well as a Research Fellow at both (DAIR) and Just Tech.

References:

Funding Helps Teachers Build AI Tools

Sal Khan's 2023 Ted Talk: AI in the classroom can transform education

Bill Gates: My trip to the frontier of AI education

Book: Access is Capture: How Edtech Reproduces Racial Inequality
Book: Disruptive Fixation: School Reform and the Pitfalls of Techno-Idealism

Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 26, Universities Anxiously Buy Into the Hype (feat. Chris Gilliard)
Episode 17: Back to School with AI Hype in Education (feat. Haley Lepp)

Fresh AI Hell:

"Streamlining" teaching

Google, Microsoft and Perplexity are promoting scientific racism in 'AI overviews'

'Whisper' medical transcription tool used in hospitals is making things up

X's AI bot can't tell the difference between a bad game and vandalism

Prompting is not a substitute for probability measurements in large language models

Yet another 'priestbot'

Self-driving wheelchairs at Seattle-Tacoma International Airpot

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> From Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, billionaires with no education expertise keep using their big names and big dollars to hype LLMs for classrooms. Promising ‘comprehensive AI tutors', or just ‘educator-informed’ tools to address understaffed classrooms, this hype is just another round of Silicon Valley pointing to real problems -- under-supported school systems -- but then directing attention and resources to their favorite toys. Former educator and DAIR research fellow Adrienne Williams joins to explain the problems this tech-solutionist redirection fails to solve, and the new ones it creates.

Adrienne Williams started organizing in 2018 while working as a junior high teacher for a tech owned charter school. She expanded her organizing in 2020 after her work as an Amazon delivery driver, where many of the same issues she saw in charter schools were also in evidence. Adrienne is a Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest with The OpEd Project in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, as well as a Research Fellow at both (DAIR) and Just Tech.

References:

Funding Helps Teachers Build AI Tools

Sal Khan's 2023 Ted Talk: AI in the classroom can transform education

Bill Gates: My trip to the frontier of AI education

Book: Access is Capture: How Edtech Reproduces Racial Inequality
Book: Disruptive Fixation: School Reform and the Pitfalls of Techno-Idealism

Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 26, Universities Anxiously Buy Into the Hype (feat. Chris Gilliard)
Episode 17: Back to School with AI Hype in Education (feat. Haley Lepp)

Fresh AI Hell:

"Streamlining" teaching

Google, Microsoft and Perplexity are promoting scientific racism in 'AI overviews'

'Whisper' medical transcription tool used in hospitals is making things up

X's AI bot can't tell the difference between a bad game and vandalism

Prompting is not a substitute for probability measurements in large language models

Yet another 'priestbot'

Self-driving wheelchairs at Seattle-Tacoma International Airpot

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16174384 Tue, 26 Nov 2024 06:00:00 -0800 3633 education, artificial intelligence, edtech, bill gates, chan zuckerberg, khan academy, k-12 45 full false Episode 44: OpenAI's Ridiculous 'Reasoning', October 28 2024 Episode 44: OpenAI's Ridiculous 'Reasoning', October 28 2024 The company behind ChatGPT is back with bombastic claim that their new o1 model is capable of so-called "complex reasoning." Ever-faithful, Alex and Emily tear it apart. Plus the flaws in a tech publication's new 'AI hype index,' and some palette-cleansing new regulation against data-scraping worker surveillance.

References:

OpenAI: Learning to reason with LLMs

Fresh AI Hell:

MIT Technology Review's AI 'AI hype index'

CFPB Takes Action to Curb Unchecked Worker Surveillance

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> The company behind ChatGPT is back with bombastic claim that their new o1 model is capable of so-called "complex reasoning." Ever-faithful, Alex and Emily tear it apart. Plus the flaws in a tech publication's new 'AI hype index,' and some palette-cleansing new regulation against data-scraping worker surveillance.

References:

OpenAI: Learning to reason with LLMs

Fresh AI Hell:

MIT Technology Review's AI 'AI hype index'

CFPB Takes Action to Curb Unchecked Worker Surveillance

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16095327 Wed, 13 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0800 3611 o1, openai, large language models, reasoning, artificial intelligence, ai 44 full false Episode 43: AI Companies Gamble with Everyone's Planet (feat. Paris Marx), October 21 2024 Episode 43: AI Companies Gamble with Everyone's Planet (feat. Paris Marx), October 21 2024 Technology journalist Paris Marx joins Alex and Emily for a conversation about the environmental harms of the giant data centers and other water- and energy-hungry infrastructure at the heart of LLMs and other generative tools like ChatGPT -- and why the hand-wavy assurances of CEOs that 'AI will fix global warming' are just magical thinking, ignoring a genuine climate cost and imperiling the clean energy transition in the US.

Paris Marx is a tech journalist and host of the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us. He also recently launched a 4-part series, Data Vampires, (which features Alex) about the promises and pitfalls of data centers like the ones AI boosters rely on.

References:

Eric Schmidt says AI more important than climate goals

Microsoft's sustainability report

Sam Altman's “The Intelligence Age” promises AI will fix the climate crisis

Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 19: The Murky Climate and Environmental Impact of Large Language Models, November 6 2023

Fresh AI Hell:

Rosetta to linguists: "Embrace AI or risk extinction" of endangered languages

A talking collar that you can use to pretend to talk with your pets

Google offers synthetic podcasts through NotebookLM

An AI 'artist' claims he's losing millions of dolalrs from people stealing his work

University hiring English professor to teach...prompt engineering


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Technology journalist Paris Marx joins Alex and Emily for a conversation about the environmental harms of the giant data centers and other water- and energy-hungry infrastructure at the heart of LLMs and other generative tools like ChatGPT -- and why the hand-wavy assurances of CEOs that 'AI will fix global warming' are just magical thinking, ignoring a genuine climate cost and imperiling the clean energy transition in the US.

Paris Marx is a tech journalist and host of the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us. He also recently launched a 4-part series, Data Vampires, (which features Alex) about the promises and pitfalls of data centers like the ones AI boosters rely on.

References:

Eric Schmidt says AI more important than climate goals

Microsoft's sustainability report

Sam Altman's “The Intelligence Age” promises AI will fix the climate crisis

Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 19: The Murky Climate and Environmental Impact of Large Language Models, November 6 2023

Fresh AI Hell:

Rosetta to linguists: "Embrace AI or risk extinction" of endangered languages

A talking collar that you can use to pretend to talk with your pets

Google offers synthetic podcasts through NotebookLM

An AI 'artist' claims he's losing millions of dolalrs from people stealing his work

University hiring English professor to teach...prompt engineering


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-16022676 Thu, 31 Oct 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3682 artificial intelligence, climate, co2, environment, carbon, water, data center, microsoft, google, meta, apple 43 full false Episode 42: Stop Trying to Make 'AI Scientist' Happen, September 30 2024 Episode 42: Stop Trying to Make 'AI Scientist' Happen, September 30 2024 Can “AI” do your science for you? Should it be your co-author? Or, as one company asks, boldly and breathlessly, “Can we automate the entire process of research itself?”

Major scientific journals have banned the use of tools like ChatGPT in the writing of research papers. But people keep trying to make “AI Scientists” a thing. Just ask your chatbot for some research questions, or have it synthesize some human subjects to save you time on surveys.

Alex and Emily explain why so-called “fully automated, open-ended scientific discovery” can’t live up to the grandiose promises of tech companies. Plus, an update on their forthcoming book!

References:

Sakana.AI keeps trying to make 'AI Scientist' happen

Can LLMs Generate Novel Research Ideas? A Large-Scale Human Study with 100+ NLP Researchers

How should the advent of large language models affect the practice of science?

Relevant research ethics policies:

ACL Policy on Publication Ethics

Committee On Public Ethics (COPE)

The Vancouver Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work

Fresh AI Hell:

Should journals allow LLMs as co-authors?

Business Insider "asks ChatGPT"

Otter.ai sends transcript of private after-meeting discussion to everyone

"Could AI End Grief?"

AI generated crime scene footage

"The first college of nursing to offer an MSN in AI"

FTC cracks down on "AI" claims


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Can “AI” do your science for you? Should it be your co-author? Or, as one company asks, boldly and breathlessly, “Can we automate the entire process of research itself?”

Major scientific journals have banned the use of tools like ChatGPT in the writing of research papers. But people keep trying to make “AI Scientists” a thing. Just ask your chatbot for some research questions, or have it synthesize some human subjects to save you time on surveys.

Alex and Emily explain why so-called “fully automated, open-ended scientific discovery” can’t live up to the grandiose promises of tech companies. Plus, an update on their forthcoming book!

References:

Sakana.AI keeps trying to make 'AI Scientist' happen

Can LLMs Generate Novel Research Ideas? A Large-Scale Human Study with 100+ NLP Researchers

How should the advent of large language models affect the practice of science?

Relevant research ethics policies:

ACL Policy on Publication Ethics

Committee On Public Ethics (COPE)

The Vancouver Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work

Fresh AI Hell:

Should journals allow LLMs as co-authors?

Business Insider "asks ChatGPT"

Otter.ai sends transcript of private after-meeting discussion to everyone

"Could AI End Grief?"

AI generated crime scene footage

"The first college of nursing to offer an MSN in AI"

FTC cracks down on "AI" claims


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15900785 Thu, 10 Oct 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3594 artificial intelligence, ai, chatgpt, science, research, scientist, generative ai 42 full false Episode 41: Sweating into AI Fall, September 9 2024 Episode 41: Sweating into AI Fall, September 9 2024 Did your summer feel like an unending barrage of terrible ideas for how to use “AI”? You’re not alone. It's time for Emily and Alex to clear out the poison, purge some backlog, and take another journey through AI hell -- from surveillance of emotions, to continued hype in education and art.

Fresh AI Hell:

Synthetic data for Hollywood test screenings

NaNoWriMo's AI fail

AI assistant rickrolls customers

Programming LLMs with "fiduciary duty"

Canva increasing prices thank to "AI" features

Ad spending by AI companies

Clearview AI hit with largest GDPR fine yet

'AI detection' in schools harms neurodivergent kids

CS prof admits unethical ChatGPT use

College recruiter chatbot can't discuss politics

"The AI-powered nonprofits reimagining education"

Teaching AI at art schools

Professors' 'AI twins' as teaching assistants

A teacherless AI classroom

Another 'AI scientist'

LLMs still biased against African American English

AI "enhances" photo of Black people into white-appearing

Eric Schmidt: Go ahead, steal data with ChatGPT

The environmental cost of Google's "AI Overviews"

Jeff Bezos' "Grand Challenge" for AI in environment

What I found in an AI-company's e-waste

xAI accused of worsening smog with unauthorized gas turbines

Smile surveillance of workers

AI for "emotion recognition" of rail passengers

Chatbot harassment scenario reveals real victim

AI has hampered productivity

"AI" in a product description turns off consumers

Is tripe kos

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Did your summer feel like an unending barrage of terrible ideas for how to use “AI”? You’re not alone. It's time for Emily and Alex to clear out the poison, purge some backlog, and take another journey through AI hell -- from surveillance of emotions, to continued hype in education and art.

Fresh AI Hell:

Synthetic data for Hollywood test screenings

NaNoWriMo's AI fail

AI assistant rickrolls customers

Programming LLMs with "fiduciary duty"

Canva increasing prices thank to "AI" features

Ad spending by AI companies

Clearview AI hit with largest GDPR fine yet

'AI detection' in schools harms neurodivergent kids

CS prof admits unethical ChatGPT use

College recruiter chatbot can't discuss politics

"The AI-powered nonprofits reimagining education"

Teaching AI at art schools

Professors' 'AI twins' as teaching assistants

A teacherless AI classroom

Another 'AI scientist'

LLMs still biased against African American English

AI "enhances" photo of Black people into white-appearing

Eric Schmidt: Go ahead, steal data with ChatGPT

The environmental cost of Google's "AI Overviews"

Jeff Bezos' "Grand Challenge" for AI in environment

What I found in an AI-company's e-waste

xAI accused of worsening smog with unauthorized gas turbines

Smile surveillance of workers

AI for "emotion recognition" of rail passengers

Chatbot harassment scenario reveals real victim

AI has hampered productivity

"AI" in a product description turns off consumers

Is tripe kos

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15808784 Thu, 26 Sep 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3688 artificial intelligence, ai, chatgpt, surveillance, hell, data security, generative ai 41 full false Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 40: Elders Need Care, Not 'AI' Surveillance (feat. Clara Berridge), August 19 2024 Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 40: Elders Need Care, Not 'AI' Surveillance (feat. Clara Berridge), August 19 2024 Dr. Clara Berridge joins Alex and Emily to talk about the many 'uses' for generative AI in elder care -- from "companionship," to "coaching" like medication reminders and other encouragements toward healthier (and, for insurers, cost-saving) behavior. But these technologies also come with questionable data practices and privacy violations. And as populations grow older on average globally, technology such as chatbots is often used to sidestep real solutions to providing meaningful care, while also playing on ageist and ableist tropes.

Dr. Clara Berridge is an associate professor at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work. Her research focuses explicitly on the policy and ethical implications of digital technology in elder care, and considers things like privacy and surveillance, power, and decision-making about technology use.

References:

Care.Coach's 'Avatar' chat program*

For Older People Who Are Lonely, Is the Solution a Robot Friend?

Care Providers’ Perspectives on the Design of Assistive Persuasive Behaviors for Socially Assistive Robots

Socio-Digital Vulnerability

***Care.Coach's 'Fara' and 'Auger' products, also discussed in this episode, are no longer listed on their site.

Fresh AI Hell:

Apple Intelligence hidden prompts include the command "don't hallucinate"

The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age

Family poisoned after following fake mushroom book

It is a beautiful evening in the neighborhood, and you are a horrible Waymo robotaxi

Dynamic pricing + surveillance hell at the grocery store

Chinese social media's newest trend: imitating AI-generated videos

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Dr. Clara Berridge joins Alex and Emily to talk about the many 'uses' for generative AI in elder care -- from "companionship," to "coaching" like medication reminders and other encouragements toward healthier (and, for insurers, cost-saving) behavior. But these technologies also come with questionable data practices and privacy violations. And as populations grow older on average globally, technology such as chatbots is often used to sidestep real solutions to providing meaningful care, while also playing on ageist and ableist tropes.

Dr. Clara Berridge is an associate professor at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work. Her research focuses explicitly on the policy and ethical implications of digital technology in elder care, and considers things like privacy and surveillance, power, and decision-making about technology use.

References:

Care.Coach's 'Avatar' chat program*

For Older People Who Are Lonely, Is the Solution a Robot Friend?

Care Providers’ Perspectives on the Design of Assistive Persuasive Behaviors for Socially Assistive Robots

Socio-Digital Vulnerability

***Care.Coach's 'Fara' and 'Auger' products, also discussed in this episode, are no longer listed on their site.

Fresh AI Hell:

Apple Intelligence hidden prompts include the command "don't hallucinate"

The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age

Family poisoned after following fake mushroom book

It is a beautiful evening in the neighborhood, and you are a horrible Waymo robotaxi

Dynamic pricing + surveillance hell at the grocery store

Chinese social media's newest trend: imitating AI-generated videos

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15744952 Fri, 13 Sep 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3643 healthcare, elder care, chatgpt, generative ai, aging, large language models 40 full false Episode 39: Newsrooms Pivot to Bullshit (feat. Sam Cole), Aug 5 2024 Episode 39: Newsrooms Pivot to Bullshit (feat. Sam Cole), Aug 5 2024 The Washington Post is going all in on AI -- surely this won't be a repeat of any past, disastrous newsroom pivots! 404 Media journalist Samantha Cole joins to talk journalism, LLMs, and why synthetic text is the antithesis of good reporting.

References:

The Washington Post Tells Staff It’s Pivoting to AI: "AI everywhere in our newsroom."
Response: Defector Media Promotes Devin The Dugong To Chief AI Officer, Unveils First AI-Generated Blog

The Washington Post's First AI Strategy Editor Talks LLMs in the Newsroom

Also: New Washington Post CTO comes from Uber

The Washington Post debuts AI chatbot, will summarize climate articles.

Media companies are making a huge mistake with AI

When ChatGPT summarizes, it does nothing of the kind

404 Media: 404 Media Now Has a Full Text RSS Feed

404 Media: Websites are Blocking the Wrong AI Scrapers (Because AI Companies Keep Making New Ones)


Fresh AI Hell:

"AI" Alan Turning

Google advertises Gemini for writing synthetic fan letters

Dutch Judge uses ChatGPT's answers to factual questions in ruling

Is GenAI coming to your home appliances?

AcademicGPT (Galactica redux)

"AI" generated imag

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> The Washington Post is going all in on AI -- surely this won't be a repeat of any past, disastrous newsroom pivots! 404 Media journalist Samantha Cole joins to talk journalism, LLMs, and why synthetic text is the antithesis of good reporting.

References:

The Washington Post Tells Staff It’s Pivoting to AI: "AI everywhere in our newsroom."
Response: Defector Media Promotes Devin The Dugong To Chief AI Officer, Unveils First AI-Generated Blog

The Washington Post's First AI Strategy Editor Talks LLMs in the Newsroom

Also: New Washington Post CTO comes from Uber

The Washington Post debuts AI chatbot, will summarize climate articles.

Media companies are making a huge mistake with AI

When ChatGPT summarizes, it does nothing of the kind

404 Media: 404 Media Now Has a Full Text RSS Feed

404 Media: Websites are Blocking the Wrong AI Scrapers (Because AI Companies Keep Making New Ones)


Fresh AI Hell:

"AI" Alan Turning

Google advertises Gemini for writing synthetic fan letters

Dutch Judge uses ChatGPT's answers to factual questions in ruling

Is GenAI coming to your home appliances?

AcademicGPT (Galactica redux)

"AI" generated imag

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15660976 Thu, 29 Aug 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3724 artificial intelligence, journalism, chatgpt, reporters, generative ai, plagiarism 39 full false Episode 38: Deflating Zoom's 'Digital Twin,' July 29 2024 Episode 38: Deflating Zoom's 'Digital Twin,' July 29 2024 Could this meeting have been an e-mail that you didn't even have to read? Emily and Alex are tearing into the lofty ambitions of Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, who claims the future is a LLM-powered 'digital twin' that can attend meetings in your stead, make decisions for you, and even be tuned to different parameters with just the click of a button.

References:
The CEO of Zoom wants AI clones in meetings

All-knowing machines are a fantasy

A reminder of some things chatbots are not good for

Medical science shouldn't platform automating end-of-life care

The grimy residue of the AI bubble

On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs: a work rant

Fresh AI Hell:
LA schools' ed tech chatbot misusing student data

AI "teaching assistants" at Morehouse

"Diet-monitoring AI tracks your each and every spoonful"

A teacher's perspective on dealing with students who "asked ChatGPT"

Are Swiss researchers affiliated with Israeli military industrial complex? Swiss institution asks ChatGPT

Using a chatbot to negotiate lower prices

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Could this meeting have been an e-mail that you didn't even have to read? Emily and Alex are tearing into the lofty ambitions of Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, who claims the future is a LLM-powered 'digital twin' that can attend meetings in your stead, make decisions for you, and even be tuned to different parameters with just the click of a button.

References:
The CEO of Zoom wants AI clones in meetings

All-knowing machines are a fantasy

A reminder of some things chatbots are not good for

Medical science shouldn't platform automating end-of-life care

The grimy residue of the AI bubble

On the phenomenon of bullshit jobs: a work rant

Fresh AI Hell:
LA schools' ed tech chatbot misusing student data

AI "teaching assistants" at Morehouse

"Diet-monitoring AI tracks your each and every spoonful"

A teacher's perspective on dealing with students who "asked ChatGPT"

Are Swiss researchers affiliated with Israeli military industrial complex? Swiss institution asks ChatGPT

Using a chatbot to negotiate lower prices

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15554524 Wed, 14 Aug 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3749 artificial intelligence, zoom, digital twin, meetings, avatar, ai, chatgpt, eric yuan 38 full false Episode 37: Chatbots Aren't Nurses (feat. Michelle Mahon), July 22 2024 Episode 37: Chatbots Aren't Nurses (feat. Michelle Mahon), July 22 2024 We regret to report that companies are still trying to make generative AI that can 'transform' healthcare -- but without investing in the wellbeing of healthcare workers or other aspects of actual patient care. Registered nurse and nursing care advocate Michelle Mahon joins Emily and Alex to explain why generative AI falls far, far short of the work nurses do.

Michelle Mahon is the Director of Nursing Practice with National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the country. Michelle has over 25 years of experience as a registered nurse in various settings. In her role with NNU, Michelle works with nurses across the United States to protect the vital role that RNs play in health care as direct caregivers and patient advocates.

References:

NVIDIA's AI Bot Outperforms Nurses: Here's What It Means

Hippocratic AI's roster of 'genAI healthcare agents'

Related: Nuance's DAX Copilot

Fresh AI Hell:

"AI-powered health coach" will urge you to drink water with lemon

50% of 2024 Q2 VC investments went to "AI"

Thanks to AI, Google no longer claiming to be carbon-neutral

Click work "jobs" soliciting photos of babies through teens

Screening of film "written by AI" canceled after backlash

Putting the AI in IPA

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> We regret to report that companies are still trying to make generative AI that can 'transform' healthcare -- but without investing in the wellbeing of healthcare workers or other aspects of actual patient care. Registered nurse and nursing care advocate Michelle Mahon joins Emily and Alex to explain why generative AI falls far, far short of the work nurses do.

Michelle Mahon is the Director of Nursing Practice with National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the country. Michelle has over 25 years of experience as a registered nurse in various settings. In her role with NNU, Michelle works with nurses across the United States to protect the vital role that RNs play in health care as direct caregivers and patient advocates.

References:

NVIDIA's AI Bot Outperforms Nurses: Here's What It Means

Hippocratic AI's roster of 'genAI healthcare agents'

Related: Nuance's DAX Copilot

Fresh AI Hell:

"AI-powered health coach" will urge you to drink water with lemon

50% of 2024 Q2 VC investments went to "AI"

Thanks to AI, Google no longer claiming to be carbon-neutral

Click work "jobs" soliciting photos of babies through teens

Screening of film "written by AI" canceled after backlash

Putting the AI in IPA

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15517978 Fri, 02 Aug 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3626 ai, artificial intelligence, nvidia, chatbot, nurse, registered nurse, healthcare, worker 37 full false Episode 36: About That 'Dangerous Capabilities' Fanfiction (feat. Ali Alkhatib), June 24 2024 Episode 36: About That 'Dangerous Capabilities' Fanfiction (feat. Ali Alkhatib), June 24 2024 When is a research paper not a research paper? When a big tech company uses a preprint server as a means to dodge peer review -- in this case, of their wild speculations on the 'dangerous capabilities' of large language models. Ali Alkhatib joins Emily to explain why a recent Google DeepMind document about the hunt for evidence that LLMs might intentionally deceive us was bad science, and yet is still influencing the public conversation about AI.

Ali Alkhatib is a computer scientist and former director of the University of San Francisco’s Center for Applied Data Ethics. His research focuses on human-computer interaction, and why our technological problems are really social – and why we should apply social science lenses to data work, algorithmic justice, and even the errors and reality distortions inherent in AI models.

References:

Google DeepMind paper-like object: Evaluating Frontier Models for Dangerous Capabilities

Fresh AI Hell:

Hacker tool extracts all the data collected by Windows' 'Recall' AI

In NYC, ShotSpotter calls are 87 percent false alarms

"AI" system to make callers sound less angry to call center workers

Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 3.5 evaluated for "graduate level reasoning"

OpenAI's Mira Murati says "AI" will have 'PhD-level' intelligence

OpenAI's Mira Murati also says AI will take some creative jobs, maybe they shouldn't have been there to start out with


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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> When is a research paper not a research paper? When a big tech company uses a preprint server as a means to dodge peer review -- in this case, of their wild speculations on the 'dangerous capabilities' of large language models. Ali Alkhatib joins Emily to explain why a recent Google DeepMind document about the hunt for evidence that LLMs might intentionally deceive us was bad science, and yet is still influencing the public conversation about AI.

Ali Alkhatib is a computer scientist and former director of the University of San Francisco’s Center for Applied Data Ethics. His research focuses on human-computer interaction, and why our technological problems are really social – and why we should apply social science lenses to data work, algorithmic justice, and even the errors and reality distortions inherent in AI models.

References:

Google DeepMind paper-like object: Evaluating Frontier Models for Dangerous Capabilities

Fresh AI Hell:

Hacker tool extracts all the data collected by Windows' 'Recall' AI

In NYC, ShotSpotter calls are 87 percent false alarms

"AI" system to make callers sound less angry to call center workers

Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 3.5 evaluated for "graduate level reasoning"

OpenAI's Mira Murati says "AI" will have 'PhD-level' intelligence

OpenAI's Mira Murati also says AI will take some creative jobs, maybe they shouldn't have been there to start out with


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15438320 Fri, 19 Jul 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3720 artificial intelligence, google deepmind, ai, gemini, large language models, llms 36 full false Episode 35: AI Overviews and Google's AdTech Empire (feat. Safiya Noble), June 10 2024 Episode 35: AI Overviews and Google's AdTech Empire (feat. Safiya Noble), June 10 2024 You've already heard about the rock-prescribing, glue pizza-suggesting hazards of Google's AI overviews. But the problems with the internet's most-used search engine go way back. UCLA scholar and "Algorithms of Oppression" author Safiya Noble joins Alex and Emily in a conversation about how Google has long been breaking our information ecosystem in the name of shareholders and ad sales.

References:

Blog post, May 14: Generative AI in Search: Let Google do the searching for you
Blog post, May 30: AI Overviews: About last week

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, by Safiya Noble

Fresh AI Hell:

AI Catholic priest demoted after saying it's OK to baptize babies with Gatorade

National Archives bans use of ChatGPT

ChatGPT better than humans at "Moral Turing Test"

Taco Bell as an "AI first" company

AGI by 2027, in one hilarious graph


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> You've already heard about the rock-prescribing, glue pizza-suggesting hazards of Google's AI overviews. But the problems with the internet's most-used search engine go way back. UCLA scholar and "Algorithms of Oppression" author Safiya Noble joins Alex and Emily in a conversation about how Google has long been breaking our information ecosystem in the name of shareholders and ad sales.

References:

Blog post, May 14: Generative AI in Search: Let Google do the searching for you
Blog post, May 30: AI Overviews: About last week

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, by Safiya Noble

Fresh AI Hell:

AI Catholic priest demoted after saying it's OK to baptize babies with Gatorade

National Archives bans use of ChatGPT

ChatGPT better than humans at "Moral Turing Test"

Taco Bell as an "AI first" company

AGI by 2027, in one hilarious graph


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15353671 Wed, 03 Jul 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3702 chatgpt, google search, ai overviews, artificial intelligence, generative ai, adtech, google 35 full false Episode 34: Senate Dot Roadmap Dot Final Dot No Really Dot Docx, June 3 2024 Episode 34: Senate Dot Roadmap Dot Final Dot No Really Dot Docx, June 3 2024 The politicians are at it again: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's series of industry-centric forums last year have birthed a "roadmap" for future legislation. Emily and Alex take a deep dive on this report, and conclude that the time spent writing it could have instead been spent...making useful laws.

References:

Driving US Innovation in Artificial Intelligence: A Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Policy in the United States

Tech Policy Press: US Senate AI Insight Forum Tracker

Put the Public in the Driver's Seat: Shadow Report to the US Senate AI Policy Roadmap

Emily's opening remarks on “AI in the Workplace: New Crisis or Longstanding Challenge” virtual roundtable

Fresh AI Hell:

Homophobia in Spotify's chatbot

StackOverflow in bed with OpenAI, pushing back against resistance

OpenAI making copyright claim against ChatGPT subreddit

Introducing synthetic text for police reports

ChatGPT-like "AI" assistant ... as a car feature?

Scarlett Johansson vs. OpenAI

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> The politicians are at it again: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's series of industry-centric forums last year have birthed a "roadmap" for future legislation. Emily and Alex take a deep dive on this report, and conclude that the time spent writing it could have instead been spent...making useful laws.

References:

Driving US Innovation in Artificial Intelligence: A Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Policy in the United States

Tech Policy Press: US Senate AI Insight Forum Tracker

Put the Public in the Driver's Seat: Shadow Report to the US Senate AI Policy Roadmap

Emily's opening remarks on “AI in the Workplace: New Crisis or Longstanding Challenge” virtual roundtable

Fresh AI Hell:

Homophobia in Spotify's chatbot

StackOverflow in bed with OpenAI, pushing back against resistance

OpenAI making copyright claim against ChatGPT subreddit

Introducing synthetic text for police reports

ChatGPT-like "AI" assistant ... as a car feature?

Scarlett Johansson vs. OpenAI

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15280581 Thu, 20 Jun 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3837 artificial inteligence, ai working group, chuck schumer, us senate, openai, scarlett johannson 34 full false Episode 33: Much Ado About 'AI' 'Deception', May 20 2024 Episode 33: Much Ado About 'AI' 'Deception', May 20 2024 Will the LLMs somehow become so advanced that they learn to lie to us in order to achieve their own ends? It's the stuff of science fiction, and in science fiction these claims should remain. Emily and guest host Margaret Mitchell, machine learning researcher and chief ethics scientist at HuggingFace, break down why 'AI deception' is firmly a feature of human hype.

Reference:

Patterns: "AI deception: A survey of examples, risks, and potential solutions"

Fresh AI Hell:

Adobe's 'ethical' image generator is still pulling from copyrighted material

Apple advertising hell: vivid depiction of tech crushing creativity, as if it were good

"AI is more creative than 99% of people"

AI generated employee handbooks causing chaos

Bumble CEO: Let AI 'concierge' do your dating for you.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Will the LLMs somehow become so advanced that they learn to lie to us in order to achieve their own ends? It's the stuff of science fiction, and in science fiction these claims should remain. Emily and guest host Margaret Mitchell, machine learning researcher and chief ethics scientist at HuggingFace, break down why 'AI deception' is firmly a feature of human hype.

Reference:

Patterns: "AI deception: A survey of examples, risks, and potential solutions"

Fresh AI Hell:

Adobe's 'ethical' image generator is still pulling from copyrighted material

Apple advertising hell: vivid depiction of tech crushing creativity, as if it were good

"AI is more creative than 99% of people"

AI generated employee handbooks causing chaos

Bumble CEO: Let AI 'concierge' do your dating for you.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15180482 Wed, 05 Jun 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3630 artificial intelligence, deception, ai, chatgpt, large language models 33 full false Episode 32: A Flood of AI Hell, April 29 2024 Episode 32: A Flood of AI Hell, April 29 2024 AI Hell froze over this winter and now a flood of meltwater threatens to drown Alex and Emily. Armed with raincoats and a hastily-written sea shanty*, they tour the realms, from spills of synthetic information, to the special corner reserved for ShotSpotter.

**Lyrics & video on Peertube.

*Surveillance:*

*Synthetic information spills:*

*Toxic wish fulfillment:*

*ShotSpotter:*

*Selling your data:*

*AI is always people:*

*TESCREAL corporate capture:*

*Accountability:*

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> AI Hell froze over this winter and now a flood of meltwater threatens to drown Alex and Emily. Armed with raincoats and a hastily-written sea shanty*, they tour the realms, from spills of synthetic information, to the special corner reserved for ShotSpotter.

**Lyrics & video on Peertube.

*Surveillance:*

*Synthetic information spills:*

*Toxic wish fulfillment:*

*ShotSpotter:*

*Selling your data:*

*AI is always people:*

*TESCREAL corporate capture:*

*Accountability:*

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15120816 Thu, 23 May 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3468 artificial intelligence, ai hell, ai hype, science, technology, surveillance, chatgpt 32 full false Episode 31: Science Is a Human Endeavor (feat. Molly Crockett and Lisa Messeri), April 15 2024 Episode 31: Science Is a Human Endeavor (feat. Molly Crockett and Lisa Messeri), April 15 2024 Will AI someday do all our scientific research for us? Not likely. Drs. Molly Crockett and Lisa Messeri join for a takedown of the hype of "self-driving labs" and why such misrepresentations also harm the humans who are vital to scientific research.

Dr. Molly Crockett is an associate professor of psychology at Princeton University.
Dr. Lisa Messeri is an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, and author of the new book, In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles.


References:

AI For Scientific Discovery - A Workshop
Nature: The Nobel Turing Challenge
Nobel Turing Challenge Website
Eric Schmidt: AI Will Transform Science
Molly Crockett & Lisa Messeri in Nature: Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research
404 Media: Is Google's AI actually discovering 'millions of new materials?'

Fresh Hell:

Yann LeCun realizes generative AI sucks, suggests shift to objective-driven AI
In contrast:
https://x.com/ylecun/status/1592619400024428544
https://x.com/ylecun/status/1594348928853483520
https://x.com/ylecun/status/1617910073870934019

CBS News: Upselling “AI” mammograms
Ars Technica: Rhyming AI clock sometimes lies about the time
Ars Technica: Surveillance by M&M's vending machine

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

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Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Will AI someday do all our scientific research for us? Not likely. Drs. Molly Crockett and Lisa Messeri join for a takedown of the hype of "self-driving labs" and why such misrepresentations also harm the humans who are vital to scientific research.

Dr. Molly Crockett is an associate professor of psychology at Princeton University.
Dr. Lisa Messeri is an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, and author of the new book, In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles.


References:

AI For Scientific Discovery - A Workshop
Nature: The Nobel Turing Challenge
Nobel Turing Challenge Website
Eric Schmidt: AI Will Transform Science
Molly Crockett & Lisa Messeri in Nature: Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research
404 Media: Is Google's AI actually discovering 'millions of new materials?'

Fresh Hell:

Yann LeCun realizes generative AI sucks, suggests shift to objective-driven AI
In contrast:
https://x.com/ylecun/status/1592619400024428544
https://x.com/ylecun/status/1594348928853483520
https://x.com/ylecun/status/1617910073870934019

CBS News: Upselling “AI” mammograms
Ars Technica: Rhyming AI clock sometimes lies about the time
Ars Technica: Surveillance by M&M's vending machine

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-15020029 Tue, 07 May 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3777 artificial intelligence, generative ai, science, chatgpt, deepmind, research 31 full false Episode 30: Marc's Miserable Manifesto, April 1 2024 Episode 30: Marc's Miserable Manifesto, April 1 2024 Dr. Timnit Gebru guest-hosts with Alex in a deep dive into Marc Andreessen's 2023 manifesto, which argues, loftily, in favor of maximizing the use of 'AI' in all possible spheres of life.

Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR). Prior to that she was fired by Google, where she was serving as co-lead of the Ethical AI research team, in December 2020 for raising issues of discrimination in the workplace. Timnit also co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI, and is on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian highschool students, free of charge.

References:
Marc Andreessen: "The Techno-Optimism Manifesto"
First Monday: The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence (Timnit Gebru & Émile Torres)
Business Insider: Explaining 'Pronatalism' in Silicon Valley


Fresh AI Hell:
CBS New York: NYC subway testing out weapons detection technology, Mayor Adams says.
The Markup: NYC's AI chatbot tells businesses to break the law

The Guardian: DrugGPT: New AI tool could help doctors prescribe medicine in England
The Guardian: Wearable AI: Will it put our smartphones out of fashion?
TheCurricula.com

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Dr. Timnit Gebru guest-hosts with Alex in a deep dive into Marc Andreessen's 2023 manifesto, which argues, loftily, in favor of maximizing the use of 'AI' in all possible spheres of life.

Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR). Prior to that she was fired by Google, where she was serving as co-lead of the Ethical AI research team, in December 2020 for raising issues of discrimination in the workplace. Timnit also co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI, and is on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian highschool students, free of charge.

References:
Marc Andreessen: "The Techno-Optimism Manifesto"
First Monday: The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence (Timnit Gebru & Émile Torres)
Business Insider: Explaining 'Pronatalism' in Silicon Valley


Fresh AI Hell:
CBS New York: NYC subway testing out weapons detection technology, Mayor Adams says.
The Markup: NYC's AI chatbot tells businesses to break the law

The Guardian: DrugGPT: New AI tool could help doctors prescribe medicine in England
The Guardian: Wearable AI: Will it put our smartphones out of fashion?
TheCurricula.com

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-14916180 Fri, 19 Apr 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3645 artificial intelligence, tescreal, accelerationist, marc andreessen, techno-optimism, eugenics, chatgpt 30 full false Episode 29: How LLMs Are Breaking the News (feat. Karen Hao), March 25 2024 Episode 29: How LLMs Are Breaking the News (feat. Karen Hao), March 25 2024 Award-winning AI journalist Karen Hao joins Alex and Emily to talk about why LLMs can't possibly replace the work of reporters -- and why the hype is damaging to already-struggling and necessary publications.

References:

Adweek: Google Is Paying Publishers to Test an Unreleased Gen AI Platform

The Quint: AI Invents Quote From Real Person in Article by Bihar News Site: A Wake-Up Call?

Fresh AI Hell:

Alliance for the Future

VentureBeat: Google researchers unveil ‘VLOGGER’, an AI that can bring still photos to life

Business Insider: A car dealership added an AI chatbot to its site. Then all hell broke loose.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Award-winning AI journalist Karen Hao joins Alex and Emily to talk about why LLMs can't possibly replace the work of reporters -- and why the hype is damaging to already-struggling and necessary publications.

References:

Adweek: Google Is Paying Publishers to Test an Unreleased Gen AI Platform

The Quint: AI Invents Quote From Real Person in Article by Bihar News Site: A Wake-Up Call?

Fresh AI Hell:

Alliance for the Future

VentureBeat: Google researchers unveil ‘VLOGGER’, an AI that can bring still photos to life

Business Insider: A car dealership added an AI chatbot to its site. Then all hell broke loose.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Karen Hao Buzzsprout-14807430 Wed, 03 Apr 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3750 journalism, media, artificial intelligence, large language models, generative AI 29 full false Episode 28: LLMs Are Not Human Subjects, March 4 2024 Episode 28: LLMs Are Not Human Subjects, March 4 2024 Alex and Emily put on their social scientist hats and take on the churn of research papers suggesting that LLMs could be used to replace human labor in social science research -- or even human subjects. Why these writings are essentially calls to fabricate data.

References:

PNAS: ChatGPT outperforms crowd workers for text-annotation tasks

Political Analysis: Out of One, Many: Using Language Models to Simulate Human Samples

Behavioral Research Methods: Can large language models help augment English psycholinguistic datasets?

Information Systems Journal: Editorial: The ethics of using generative AI for qualitative data analysis

Fresh AI Hell:

Advertising vs. reality, synthetic Willy Wonka edition

A news outlet used an LLM to generate a story...and it falsely quoted Emily

Trump supporters target Black voters with faked AI images

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Alex and Emily put on their social scientist hats and take on the churn of research papers suggesting that LLMs could be used to replace human labor in social science research -- or even human subjects. Why these writings are essentially calls to fabricate data.

References:

PNAS: ChatGPT outperforms crowd workers for text-annotation tasks

Political Analysis: Out of One, Many: Using Language Models to Simulate Human Samples

Behavioral Research Methods: Can large language models help augment English psycholinguistic datasets?

Information Systems Journal: Editorial: The ethics of using generative AI for qualitative data analysis

Fresh AI Hell:

Advertising vs. reality, synthetic Willy Wonka edition

A news outlet used an LLM to generate a story...and it falsely quoted Emily

Trump supporters target Black voters with faked AI images

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-14677380 Wed, 13 Mar 2024 03:00:00 -0700 3657 social science, research, data, human subjects, political science, ChatGPT, LLM, artificial intelligence, ai, technology, science 28 full true Episode 27: Asimov's Laws vs. 'AI' Death-Making (w/ Annalee Newitz & Charlie Jane Anders), February 19 2024 Episode 27: Asimov's Laws vs. 'AI' Death-Making (w/ Annalee Newitz & Charlie Jane Anders), February 19 2024 Science fiction authors and all-around tech thinkers Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders join this week to talk about Isaac Asimov's oft-cited and equally often misunderstood laws of robotics, as debuted in his short story collection, 'I, Robot.' Meanwhile, both global and US military institutions are declaring interest in 'ethical' frameworks for autonomous weaponry.

Plus, in AI Hell, a ballsy scientific diagram heard 'round the world -- and a proposal for the end of books as we know it, from someone who clearly hates reading.

Charlie Jane Anders is a science fiction author. Her recent and forthcoming books include Promises Stronger Than Darkness in the ‘Unstoppable’ trilogy, the graphic novel New Mutants: Lethal Legion, and the forthcoming adult novel Prodigal Mother.

Annalee Newitz is a science journalist who also writes science fiction. Their most recent novel is The Terraformers, and in June you can look forward to their nonfiction book, Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind.

They both co-host the podcast, 'Our Opinions Are Correct', which explores how science fiction is relevant to real life and our present society.

Also, some fun news: Emily and Alex are writing a book! Look forward (in spring 2025) to The AI Con, a narrative takedown of the AI bubble and its megaphone-wielding boosters that exposes how tech’s greedy prophets aim to reap windfall profits from the promise of replacing workers with machines.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

International declaration on "Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy" provides "a normative framework addressing the use of these capabilities in the military domain."

DARPA's 'ASIMOV' program to "objectively and quantitatively measure the ethical difficulty of future autonomy use-cases...within the context of military operational values."
Short version
Long version (pdf download)

Fresh AI Hell:

"I think we will stop publishing books, but instead publish “thunks”, which are nuggets of thought that can interact with the “reader” in a dynamic and multimedia way."

AI generated illustrations in a scientific paper -- rat balls edition.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Science fiction authors and all-around tech thinkers Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders join this week to talk about Isaac Asimov's oft-cited and equally often misunderstood laws of robotics, as debuted in his short story collection, 'I, Robot.' Meanwhile, both global and US military institutions are declaring interest in 'ethical' frameworks for autonomous weaponry.

Plus, in AI Hell, a ballsy scientific diagram heard 'round the world -- and a proposal for the end of books as we know it, from someone who clearly hates reading.

Charlie Jane Anders is a science fiction author. Her recent and forthcoming books include Promises Stronger Than Darkness in the ‘Unstoppable’ trilogy, the graphic novel New Mutants: Lethal Legion, and the forthcoming adult novel Prodigal Mother.

Annalee Newitz is a science journalist who also writes science fiction. Their most recent novel is The Terraformers, and in June you can look forward to their nonfiction book, Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind.

They both co-host the podcast, 'Our Opinions Are Correct', which explores how science fiction is relevant to real life and our present society.

Also, some fun news: Emily and Alex are writing a book! Look forward (in spring 2025) to The AI Con, a narrative takedown of the AI bubble and its megaphone-wielding boosters that exposes how tech’s greedy prophets aim to reap windfall profits from the promise of replacing workers with machines.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

International declaration on "Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy" provides "a normative framework addressing the use of these capabilities in the military domain."

DARPA's 'ASIMOV' program to "objectively and quantitatively measure the ethical difficulty of future autonomy use-cases...within the context of military operational values."
Short version
Long version (pdf download)

Fresh AI Hell:

"I think we will stop publishing books, but instead publish “thunks”, which are nuggets of thought that can interact with the “reader” in a dynamic and multimedia way."

AI generated illustrations in a scientific paper -- rat balls edition.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-14597462 Thu, 29 Feb 2024 03:00:00 -0800 3882 artificial intelligence, military, autonomous, war, weapons, isaac asimov, science fiction 27 full false Episode 26: Universities Anxiously Buy in to the Hype (feat. Chris Gilliard), February 5 2024 Episode 26: Universities Anxiously Buy in to the Hype (feat. Chris Gilliard), February 5 2024 Just Tech Fellow Dr. Chris Gilliard aka "Hypervisible" joins Emily and Alex to talk about the wave of universities adopting AI-driven educational technologies, and the lack of protections they offer students in terms of data privacy or even emotional safety.

References:


Inside Higher Ed: Arizona State Joins ChatGPT in First Higher Ed Partnership

ASU press release version: New Collaboration with OpenAI Charts theFuture of AI in Higher Education

MLive: Your Classmate Could Be an AI Student at this Michigan University

Chris Gilliard: How Ed Tech Is Exploiting Students


Fresh AI Hell:


Various: “AI learns just like a kid”
Infants' gaze teaches AI the nuances of language acquisition
Similar from NeuroscienceNews

Politico: Psychologist apparently happy with fake version of himself

WSJ: Employers Are Offering a New Worker Benefit: Wellness Chatbots

NPR: Artificial intelligence can find your location in photos, worrying privacy expert

Palette cleanser: Goodbye to NYC's useless robocop.


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Just Tech Fellow Dr. Chris Gilliard aka "Hypervisible" joins Emily and Alex to talk about the wave of universities adopting AI-driven educational technologies, and the lack of protections they offer students in terms of data privacy or even emotional safety.

References:


Inside Higher Ed: Arizona State Joins ChatGPT in First Higher Ed Partnership

ASU press release version: New Collaboration with OpenAI Charts theFuture of AI in Higher Education

MLive: Your Classmate Could Be an AI Student at this Michigan University

Chris Gilliard: How Ed Tech Is Exploiting Students


Fresh AI Hell:


Various: “AI learns just like a kid”
Infants' gaze teaches AI the nuances of language acquisition
Similar from NeuroscienceNews

Politico: Psychologist apparently happy with fake version of himself

WSJ: Employers Are Offering a New Worker Benefit: Wellness Chatbots

NPR: Artificial intelligence can find your location in photos, worrying privacy expert

Palette cleanser: Goodbye to NYC's useless robocop.


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-14505215 Thu, 15 Feb 2024 03:00:00 -0800 3592 artificial intelligence, AI, higher education, edtech, chatgpt, data privacy 26 full false Episode 25: An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your Job, January 22 2024 Episode 25: An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your Job, January 22 2024 Is ChatGPT really going to take your job? Emily and Alex unpack two hype-tastic papers that make implausible claims about the number of workforce tasks LLMs might make cheaper, faster or easier. And why bad methodology may still trick companies into trying to replace human workers with mathy-math.

Visit us on PeerTube for the video of this conversation.

References:

OpenAI: GPTs are GPTs
Goldman Sachs: The Potentially Large Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Economic Growth

FYI: Over the last 60 years, automation has totally eliminated just one US occupation.


Fresh AI Hell:

Microsoft adding a dedicated "AI" key to PC keyboards.

The AI-led enshittification at Duolingo

University of Washington Provost highlighting “AI”
“Using ChatGPT, My AI eBook Creation Pro helps you write an entire e-book with just three clicks -- no writing or technical experience required.”
"Can you add artificial intelligence to the hydraulics?"

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Is ChatGPT really going to take your job? Emily and Alex unpack two hype-tastic papers that make implausible claims about the number of workforce tasks LLMs might make cheaper, faster or easier. And why bad methodology may still trick companies into trying to replace human workers with mathy-math.

Visit us on PeerTube for the video of this conversation.

References:

OpenAI: GPTs are GPTs
Goldman Sachs: The Potentially Large Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Economic Growth

FYI: Over the last 60 years, automation has totally eliminated just one US occupation.


Fresh AI Hell:

Microsoft adding a dedicated "AI" key to PC keyboards.

The AI-led enshittification at Duolingo

University of Washington Provost highlighting “AI”
“Using ChatGPT, My AI eBook Creation Pro helps you write an entire e-book with just three clicks -- no writing or technical experience required.”
"Can you add artificial intelligence to the hydraulics?"

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-14416779 Thu, 01 Feb 2024 03:00:00 -0800 3389 artificial intelligence, labor economics, jobs, employment, labor statistics, chatgpt, large language models, ai 25 full false Episode 24: AI Won't Solve Structural Inequality (feat. Kerry McInerney & Eleanor Drage), January 8 2024 Episode 24: AI Won't Solve Structural Inequality (feat. Kerry McInerney & Eleanor Drage), January 8 2024 New year, same Bullshit Mountain. Alex and Emily are joined by feminist technosolutionism critics Eleanor Drage and Kerry McInerney to tear down the ways AI is proposed as a solution to structural inequality, including racism, ableism, and sexism -- and why this hype can occlude the need for more meaningful changes in institutions.

Dr. Eleanor Drage is a Senior Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. Dr. Kerry McInerney is a Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and a Research Fellow at the AI Now Institute. Together they host The Good Robot, a podcast about gender, feminism, and whether technology can be "good" in either outcomes or processes.

Watch the video version of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

HireVue promo: How Innovative Hiring Technology Nurtures Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Algorithm Watch: The [German Federal Asylum Agency]'s controversial dialect recognition software: new languages and an EU pilot project

Want to see how AI might be processing video of your face during a job interview? Play with React App, a tool that Eleanor helped develop to critique AI-powered video interview tools and the 'personality insights' they offer.

Philosophy & Technology: Does AI Debias Recruitment? Race, Gender, and AI’s “Eradication of Difference” (Drage & McInerney, 2022)

Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies: Copies without an original: the performativity of biometric bordering technologies (Drage & Frabetti, 2023)

Fresh AI Hell

Internet of Shit 2.0: a "smart" bidet

Fake AI “students” enrolled at Michigan University

Synthetic images destroy online crochet groups

“AI” for teacher performance feedback

Palette cleanser: “Stochastic parrot” is the American Dialect Society’s AI-related word of the year for 2023!

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> New year, same Bullshit Mountain. Alex and Emily are joined by feminist technosolutionism critics Eleanor Drage and Kerry McInerney to tear down the ways AI is proposed as a solution to structural inequality, including racism, ableism, and sexism -- and why this hype can occlude the need for more meaningful changes in institutions.

Dr. Eleanor Drage is a Senior Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. Dr. Kerry McInerney is a Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and a Research Fellow at the AI Now Institute. Together they host The Good Robot, a podcast about gender, feminism, and whether technology can be "good" in either outcomes or processes.

Watch the video version of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

HireVue promo: How Innovative Hiring Technology Nurtures Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Algorithm Watch: The [German Federal Asylum Agency]'s controversial dialect recognition software: new languages and an EU pilot project

Want to see how AI might be processing video of your face during a job interview? Play with React App, a tool that Eleanor helped develop to critique AI-powered video interview tools and the 'personality insights' they offer.

Philosophy & Technology: Does AI Debias Recruitment? Race, Gender, and AI’s “Eradication of Difference” (Drage & McInerney, 2022)

Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies: Copies without an original: the performativity of biometric bordering technologies (Drage & Frabetti, 2023)

Fresh AI Hell

Internet of Shit 2.0: a "smart" bidet

Fake AI “students” enrolled at Michigan University

Synthetic images destroy online crochet groups

“AI” for teacher performance feedback

Palette cleanser: “Stochastic parrot” is the American Dialect Society’s AI-related word of the year for 2023!

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-14324133 Wed, 17 Jan 2024 03:00:00 -0800 3617 artificial intelligence, deai, structural inequality, employment, migration, border policy 24 full false Episode 23: AI Hell Freezes Over, December 22 2023 Episode 23: AI Hell Freezes Over, December 22 2023 AI Hell has frozen over for a single hour. Alex and Emily visit all seven circles in a tour of the worst in bite-sized BS.

References:

Pentagon moving toward letting AI weapons autonomously kill humans

NYC Mayor uses AI to make robocalls in languages he doesn’t speak

University of Michigan investing in OpenAI

Tesla: claims of “full self-driving” are free speech

LLMs may not "understand" output

'Maths-ticated' data

LLMs can’t analyze an SEC filing

How GPT-4 can be used to create fake datasets

Paper thanking GPT-4 concludes LLMs are good for science

Will AI Improve Healthcare? Consumers Think So

US struggling to regulate AI in healthcare

Andrew Ng's low p(doom)

Presenting the “Off-Grid AGI Safety Facility”

Chess is in the training data

DropBox files now shared with OpenAI

Underline.io and ‘commercial exploitation’

Axel Springer, OpenAI strike "real-time news" deal

Adobe Stock selling AI-generated images of Israel-Hamas conflict

Sports Illustrated Published Articles by AI Writers

Cruise confirms robotaxis rely on human assistance every 4-5 miles

Underage workers training AI, exposed to traumatic content

Prisoners training AI in Finland

ChatGPT gives better output in response to emotional language
- An explanation for bad AI journalism

UK judges now permitted to use ChatGPT in legal rulings.

Michael Cohen's attorney apparently used generative AI in court petition

Brazilian city enacts ordinance secretly written by ChatGPT

The lawyers getting fired for using ChatGPT

Using sequences of life-events to predict human lives

Your palette-cleanser: Is my toddler a stochastic parrot?

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> AI Hell has frozen over for a single hour. Alex and Emily visit all seven circles in a tour of the worst in bite-sized BS.

References:

Pentagon moving toward letting AI weapons autonomously kill humans

NYC Mayor uses AI to make robocalls in languages he doesn’t speak

University of Michigan investing in OpenAI

Tesla: claims of “full self-driving” are free speech

LLMs may not "understand" output

'Maths-ticated' data

LLMs can’t analyze an SEC filing

How GPT-4 can be used to create fake datasets

Paper thanking GPT-4 concludes LLMs are good for science

Will AI Improve Healthcare? Consumers Think So

US struggling to regulate AI in healthcare

Andrew Ng's low p(doom)

Presenting the “Off-Grid AGI Safety Facility”

Chess is in the training data

DropBox files now shared with OpenAI

Underline.io and ‘commercial exploitation’

Axel Springer, OpenAI strike "real-time news" deal

Adobe Stock selling AI-generated images of Israel-Hamas conflict

Sports Illustrated Published Articles by AI Writers

Cruise confirms robotaxis rely on human assistance every 4-5 miles

Underage workers training AI, exposed to traumatic content

Prisoners training AI in Finland

ChatGPT gives better output in response to emotional language
- An explanation for bad AI journalism

UK judges now permitted to use ChatGPT in legal rulings.

Michael Cohen's attorney apparently used generative AI in court petition

Brazilian city enacts ordinance secretly written by ChatGPT

The lawyers getting fired for using ChatGPT

Using sequences of life-events to predict human lives

Your palette-cleanser: Is my toddler a stochastic parrot?

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-14282708 Wed, 10 Jan 2024 03:00:00 -0800 3882 artificial intelligence, ai hell, ai safety, ai ethics, generative ai, chatgpt, gpt-4, llms 23 full false Episode 22: Congressional 'AI' Hearings Say More about Lawmakers (feat. Justin Hendrix), December 18 2023 Episode 22: Congressional 'AI' Hearings Say More about Lawmakers (feat. Justin Hendrix), December 18 2023 Congress spent 2023 busy with hearings to investigate the capabilities, risks and potential uses of large language models and other 'artificial intelligence' systems. Alex and Emily, plus journalist Justin Hendrix, talk about the limitations of these hearings, the alarmist fixation on so-called 'p(doom)' and overdue laws on data privacy.

Justin Hendrix is editor of the Tech Policy Press.


References:

TPP tracker for the US Senate 'AI Insight Forum' hearings

Balancing Knowledge and Governance: Foundations for Effective Risk Management of AI (featuring Emily)

Emily's opening remarks at virtual roundtable on AI
Senate hearing addressing national security implications of AI
Video: Rep. Nancy Mace opens hearing with ChatGPT-generated statement.
Brennan Center report on Department of Homeland Security: Overdue Scrutiny for Watch Listing and Risk Prediction
TPP: Senate Homeland Security Committee Considers Philosophy of AI
Alex & Emily's appearance on the Tech Policy Press Podcast

Fresh AI Hell:

Asylum seekers vs AI-powered translation apps

UK officials use AI to decide on issues from benefits to marriage licenses

Prior guest Dr. Sarah Myers West testifying on AI concentration

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Congress spent 2023 busy with hearings to investigate the capabilities, risks and potential uses of large language models and other 'artificial intelligence' systems. Alex and Emily, plus journalist Justin Hendrix, talk about the limitations of these hearings, the alarmist fixation on so-called 'p(doom)' and overdue laws on data privacy.

Justin Hendrix is editor of the Tech Policy Press.


References:

TPP tracker for the US Senate 'AI Insight Forum' hearings

Balancing Knowledge and Governance: Foundations for Effective Risk Management of AI (featuring Emily)

Emily's opening remarks at virtual roundtable on AI
Senate hearing addressing national security implications of AI
Video: Rep. Nancy Mace opens hearing with ChatGPT-generated statement.
Brennan Center report on Department of Homeland Security: Overdue Scrutiny for Watch Listing and Risk Prediction
TPP: Senate Homeland Security Committee Considers Philosophy of AI
Alex & Emily's appearance on the Tech Policy Press Podcast

Fresh AI Hell:

Asylum seekers vs AI-powered translation apps

UK officials use AI to decide on issues from benefits to marriage licenses

Prior guest Dr. Sarah Myers West testifying on AI concentration

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-14235115 Wed, 03 Jan 2024 03:00:00 -0800 3472 artificial intelligence, technology policy, united states congress, data privacy, senate, government 22 full false Episode 21: The True Meaning of 'Open Source' (feat. Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld), November 20 2023 Episode 21: The True Meaning of 'Open Source' (feat. Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld), November 20 2023 Researchers Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld join Alex and Emily to examine what software companies really mean when they say their work is 'open source,' and call for greater transparency.

This episode was recorded on November 20, 2023.

Dr. Sarah West is the managing director of the AI Now Institute. Her award-winning research and writing blends social science, policy, and historical methods to address the intersection of technology, labor, antitrust, and platform accountability. And she’s the author of the forthcoming book, "Tracing Code."

Dr. Andreas Liesenfeld is assistant professor in both the Centre for Language Studies and department of language and communication at Radboud University in the Netherlands. He’s a co-author on research from this summer critically examining the true “open source” nature of models like LLaMA and ChatGPT – concluding.


References:

Yann LeCun testifies on 'open source' work at Meta

Meta launches LLaMA 2

Stanford Human-Centered AI's new transparency index

Opening up ChatGPT (Andreas Liesenfeld's work)

Fresh AI Hell:

Sam Altman out at OpenAI

The Verge: Meta disbands their Responsible AI team

Ars Technica: Lawsuit claims AI with 90 percent error rate forces elderly out of rehab, nursing homes

Call-out of Stability and others' use of “fair use” in AI-generated art

A fawning profile of OpenAI's Ilya Sutske

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Researchers Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld join Alex and Emily to examine what software companies really mean when they say their work is 'open source,' and call for greater transparency.

This episode was recorded on November 20, 2023.

Dr. Sarah West is the managing director of the AI Now Institute. Her award-winning research and writing blends social science, policy, and historical methods to address the intersection of technology, labor, antitrust, and platform accountability. And she’s the author of the forthcoming book, "Tracing Code."

Dr. Andreas Liesenfeld is assistant professor in both the Centre for Language Studies and department of language and communication at Radboud University in the Netherlands. He’s a co-author on research from this summer critically examining the true “open source” nature of models like LLaMA and ChatGPT – concluding.


References:

Yann LeCun testifies on 'open source' work at Meta

Meta launches LLaMA 2

Stanford Human-Centered AI's new transparency index

Opening up ChatGPT (Andreas Liesenfeld's work)

Fresh AI Hell:

Sam Altman out at OpenAI

The Verge: Meta disbands their Responsible AI team

Ars Technica: Lawsuit claims AI with 90 percent error rate forces elderly out of rehab, nursing homes

Call-out of Stability and others' use of “fair use” in AI-generated art

A fawning profile of OpenAI's Ilya Sutske

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-14059868 Thu, 30 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0800 3848 artificial intelligence, generative AI, machine learning, AI hell, chatgpt, open source, software, llm 21 full false Episode 20: Let's Do the Time Warp! (to the "Founding" of "Artificial Intelligence"), November 6 2023 Episode 20: Let's Do the Time Warp! (to the "Founding" of "Artificial Intelligence"), November 6 2023 Emily and Alex time travel back to a conference of men who gathered at Dartmouth College in the summer of 1956 to examine problems relating to computation and "thinking machines," an event commonly mythologized as the founding of the field of artificial intelligence. But our crack team of AI hype detectives is on the case with a close reading of the grant proposal that started it all.

This episode was recorder on November 6, 2023. Watch the video version on PeerTube.

References:

"A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence" (1955)

Re: methodological individualism, "The Role of General Theory in Comparative-historical Sociology," American Journal of Sociology, 1991


Fresh AI Hell:

Silly made-up graph about “intelligence” of AI vs. “intelligence” of AI criticism

How AI is perpetuating racism and other bias against Palestinians:
The UN hired an AI company with "realistic virtual simulations" of Israel and Palestine
WhatsApp's AI sticker generator is feeding users images of Palestinian children holding guns
The Guardian on the same issue
Instagram 'Sincerely Apologizes' For Inserting 'Terrorist' Into Palestinian Bio Translations

Palette cleanser: An AI-powered smoothie shop shut down almost immediately after opening.

OpenAI chief scientist: Humans could become 'part AI' in the future

A Brief History of Intelligence: Why the evolution of the brain holds the key to the future of AI.

AI-centered 'monastic academy':“MAPLE is a community of practitioners exploring the intersection of AI and wisdom.”

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex time travel back to a conference of men who gathered at Dartmouth College in the summer of 1956 to examine problems relating to computation and "thinking machines," an event commonly mythologized as the founding of the field of artificial intelligence. But our crack team of AI hype detectives is on the case with a close reading of the grant proposal that started it all.

This episode was recorder on November 6, 2023. Watch the video version on PeerTube.

References:

"A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence" (1955)

Re: methodological individualism, "The Role of General Theory in Comparative-historical Sociology," American Journal of Sociology, 1991


Fresh AI Hell:

Silly made-up graph about “intelligence” of AI vs. “intelligence” of AI criticism

How AI is perpetuating racism and other bias against Palestinians:
The UN hired an AI company with "realistic virtual simulations" of Israel and Palestine
WhatsApp's AI sticker generator is feeding users images of Palestinian children holding guns
The Guardian on the same issue
Instagram 'Sincerely Apologizes' For Inserting 'Terrorist' Into Palestinian Bio Translations

Palette cleanser: An AI-powered smoothie shop shut down almost immediately after opening.

OpenAI chief scientist: Humans could become 'part AI' in the future

A Brief History of Intelligence: Why the evolution of the brain holds the key to the future of AI.

AI-centered 'monastic academy':“MAPLE is a community of practitioners exploring the intersection of AI and wisdom.”

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

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Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-14010751 Tue, 21 Nov 2023 05:00:00 -0800 3893 artificial intelligence, dartmouth conference, computer programming, technology history, large language models 20 full false Episode 19: The Murky Climate and Environmental Impact of Large Language Models, November 6 2023 Episode 19: The Murky Climate and Environmental Impact of Large Language Models, November 6 2023 Drs. Emma Strubell and Sasha Luccioni join Emily and Alex for an environment-focused hour of AI hype. How much carbon does a single use of ChatGPT emit? What about the water or energy consumption of manufacturing the graphics processing units that train various large language models? Why even catastrophic estimates from well-meaning researchers may not tell the full story.

This episode was recorded on November 6, 2023.

References:

"The Carbon Footprint of Machine Learning Training Will Plateau, Then Shrink" 

"The Carbon Emissions of Writing and Illustrating Are Lower for AI than for Humans" 

The growing energy footprint of artificial intelligence
- New York Times coverage: "AI Could Soon Need as Much Electricity as an Entire Country"

"Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP."
"The 'invisible' materiality of information technology."
"Counting Carbon: A Survey of Factors Influencing the Emissions of Machine Learning"
"AI is dangerous, but not for the reasons you think." 

Fresh AI Hell:

Not the software to blame for deadly Tesla autopilot crash, but the company selling the software.

4chan Uses Bing to Flood the Internet With Racist Images
Followup from Vice: Generative AI Is a Disaster, and Companies Don’t Seem to Really Care

Is this evidence for LLMs having an internal "world model"?

“Approaching a universal Turing machine”

Americans Are Asking AI: ‘Should I Get Back With My Ex?’

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Drs. Emma Strubell and Sasha Luccioni join Emily and Alex for an environment-focused hour of AI hype. How much carbon does a single use of ChatGPT emit? What about the water or energy consumption of manufacturing the graphics processing units that train various large language models? Why even catastrophic estimates from well-meaning researchers may not tell the full story.

This episode was recorded on November 6, 2023.

References:

"The Carbon Footprint of Machine Learning Training Will Plateau, Then Shrink" 

"The Carbon Emissions of Writing and Illustrating Are Lower for AI than for Humans" 

The growing energy footprint of artificial intelligence
- New York Times coverage: "AI Could Soon Need as Much Electricity as an Entire Country"

"Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP."
"The 'invisible' materiality of information technology."
"Counting Carbon: A Survey of Factors Influencing the Emissions of Machine Learning"
"AI is dangerous, but not for the reasons you think." 

Fresh AI Hell:

Not the software to blame for deadly Tesla autopilot crash, but the company selling the software.

4chan Uses Bing to Flood the Internet With Racist Images
Followup from Vice: Generative AI Is a Disaster, and Companies Don’t Seem to Really Care

Is this evidence for LLMs having an internal "world model"?

“Approaching a universal Turing machine”

Americans Are Asking AI: ‘Should I Get Back With My Ex?’

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13931174 Wed, 08 Nov 2023 03:00:00 -0800 3681 artificial intelligence, AI, generative AI, machine learning, natural language processing, climate, carbon footprint, environment, sustainability 20 full false Episode 18: Rumors of Artificial General Intelligence Have Been Greatly Exaggerated, October 23 2023 Episode 18: Rumors of Artificial General Intelligence Have Been Greatly Exaggerated, October 23 2023 Emily and Alex read through Google vice president Blaise Aguera y Arcas' recent proclamation that "artificial general intelligence is already here." Why this claim is a maze of hype and moving goalposts.

References:

Noema Magazine: "Artificial General Intelligence Is Already Here." 

"AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark" 

"Targeting the Benchmark: On Methodology and Current Natural Language Processing Research"

"Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing"

"The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise"

"Is chess the drosophila of artificial intelligence? A social history of an algorithm" 

"The logic of domains"

"Reckoning and Judgment"


Fresh AI Hell:

Using AI to meet "diversity goals" in modeling
AI ushering in a "post-plagiarism" era in writing

"Wildly effective and dirt cheap AI therapy."

Applying AI to "improve diagnosis for patients with rare diseases."

Using LLMs in scientific research

Health insurance company Cigna using AI to deny medical claims.

AI for your wearable-based workout

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex read through Google vice president Blaise Aguera y Arcas' recent proclamation that "artificial general intelligence is already here." Why this claim is a maze of hype and moving goalposts.

References:

Noema Magazine: "Artificial General Intelligence Is Already Here." 

"AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark" 

"Targeting the Benchmark: On Methodology and Current Natural Language Processing Research"

"Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing"

"The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise"

"Is chess the drosophila of artificial intelligence? A social history of an algorithm" 

"The logic of domains"

"Reckoning and Judgment"


Fresh AI Hell:

Using AI to meet "diversity goals" in modeling
AI ushering in a "post-plagiarism" era in writing

"Wildly effective and dirt cheap AI therapy."

Applying AI to "improve diagnosis for patients with rare diseases."

Using LLMs in scientific research

Health insurance company Cigna using AI to deny medical claims.

AI for your wearable-based workout

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13867500 Tue, 31 Oct 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3602 artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence, agi, chatgpt 18 full false Episode 17: Back to School with AI Hype in Education (feat. Haley Lepp), September 22 2023 Episode 17: Back to School with AI Hype in Education (feat. Haley Lepp), September 22 2023 Emily and Alex are joined by Stanford PhD student Haley Lepp to examine the increasing hype around LLMs in education spaces - whether they're pitched as ways to reduce teacher workloads, increase accessibility, or simply "democratize learning and knowing" in the Global South. Plus a double dose of devaluating educator expertise and fatalism about the 'inevitability' of LLMs in the classroom.

Haley Lepp is a Ph.D. student in the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. She draws on critical data studies, computational social science, and qualitative methods to understand the rise of language technologies and their use for educational purposes. Haley has worked in many roles in the education technology sector, including curriculum design and NLP engineering. She holds an M.S. in Computational Linguistics from the University of Washington and B.S. in Science, Technology, and International Affairs from Georgetown University.

References:

University of Michigan debuts 'customized AI services'
Al Jazeera: An AI classroom revolution is coming
California Teachers Association: The Future of Education?

Politico: AI is not just for cheating

Extra credit: "Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning" by Audrey Watters

Fresh AI Hell:

AI generated travel article for Ottawa -- visit the food bank! 

Microsoft Copilot is “usefully wrong”
* Response from Jeff Doctor

“Ethical” production of “AI girlfriends”

Withdrawn AI-written preprint on millipedes resurfaces, causing alarm among myriapodological community

New York Times: How to Tell if Your A.I. Is Conscious
* Response from VentureBeat: Today'

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex are joined by Stanford PhD student Haley Lepp to examine the increasing hype around LLMs in education spaces - whether they're pitched as ways to reduce teacher workloads, increase accessibility, or simply "democratize learning and knowing" in the Global South. Plus a double dose of devaluating educator expertise and fatalism about the 'inevitability' of LLMs in the classroom.

Haley Lepp is a Ph.D. student in the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. She draws on critical data studies, computational social science, and qualitative methods to understand the rise of language technologies and their use for educational purposes. Haley has worked in many roles in the education technology sector, including curriculum design and NLP engineering. She holds an M.S. in Computational Linguistics from the University of Washington and B.S. in Science, Technology, and International Affairs from Georgetown University.

References:

University of Michigan debuts 'customized AI services'
Al Jazeera: An AI classroom revolution is coming
California Teachers Association: The Future of Education?

Politico: AI is not just for cheating

Extra credit: "Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning" by Audrey Watters

Fresh AI Hell:

AI generated travel article for Ottawa -- visit the food bank! 

Microsoft Copilot is “usefully wrong”
* Response from Jeff Doctor

“Ethical” production of “AI girlfriends”

Withdrawn AI-written preprint on millipedes resurfaces, causing alarm among myriapodological community

New York Times: How to Tell if Your A.I. Is Conscious
* Response from VentureBeat: Today'

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna with Haley Lepp Buzzsprout-13704618 Wed, 04 Oct 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3714 education, artificial intelligence, chatgpt, ai, classrooms, educators, teachers, education, college, students 17 full false Episode 16: Med-PaLM or Facepalm? A Second Opinion On LLMs In Healthcare (feat. Roxana Daneshjou), August 28, 2023 Episode 16: Med-PaLM or Facepalm? A Second Opinion On LLMs In Healthcare (feat. Roxana Daneshjou), August 28, 2023 Alex and Emily are taking another stab at Google and other companies' aspirations to be part of the healthcare system - this time with the expertise of Stanford incoming assistant professor of dermatology and biomedical data science Roxana Daneshjou. A look at the gap between medical licensing examination questions and real life, and the inherently two-tiered system that might emerge if LLMs are brought into the diagnostic process.

References:

Google blog post describing Med-PaLM

Nature: Large language models encode clinical knowledge

Politico: Microsoft teaming up with Epic Systems to integrate generative AI into electronic medical records software

MedRXiv: Beyond the hype: large language models propagate race-based medicine (Omiye, Daneshjou, et al)

Fresh AI hell:

Fake summaries of fake reviews
https://bsky.app/profile/hypervisible.bsky.social/post/3k4wouet3pg2u

School administrators asking ChatGPT which books they have to remove from school libraries, given Iowa’s book ban

Mason City Globe Gazette: “Each of these texts was reviewed using AI software to determine if it contains a depiction of a sex act. Based on this review, there are 19 texts that will be removed from our 7-12 school library collections and stored in the Administrative Center while we await further guidance or clarity.”

Loquacity and Visible Emotion: ChatGPT as a Policy Advisor
Written by authors at the Bank of Italy

AI generated school bus routes get students home at 10pm

Lethal AI generated mushroom-hunting books

How would RBG respond?

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Alex and Emily are taking another stab at Google and other companies' aspirations to be part of the healthcare system - this time with the expertise of Stanford incoming assistant professor of dermatology and biomedical data science Roxana Daneshjou. A look at the gap between medical licensing examination questions and real life, and the inherently two-tiered system that might emerge if LLMs are brought into the diagnostic process.

References:

Google blog post describing Med-PaLM

Nature: Large language models encode clinical knowledge

Politico: Microsoft teaming up with Epic Systems to integrate generative AI into electronic medical records software

MedRXiv: Beyond the hype: large language models propagate race-based medicine (Omiye, Daneshjou, et al)

Fresh AI hell:

Fake summaries of fake reviews
https://bsky.app/profile/hypervisible.bsky.social/post/3k4wouet3pg2u

School administrators asking ChatGPT which books they have to remove from school libraries, given Iowa’s book ban

Mason City Globe Gazette: “Each of these texts was reviewed using AI software to determine if it contains a depiction of a sex act. Based on this review, there are 19 texts that will be removed from our 7-12 school library collections and stored in the Administrative Center while we await further guidance or clarity.”

Loquacity and Visible Emotion: ChatGPT as a Policy Advisor
Written by authors at the Bank of Italy

AI generated school bus routes get students home at 10pm

Lethal AI generated mushroom-hunting books

How would RBG respond?

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13675879 Thu, 28 Sep 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3722 healthcare, medicine, AI, chatgpt, artificial intelligence, large language models 16 full false Episode 15: The White House And Big Tech Dance The Self-Regulation Tango, August 11 2023 Episode 15: The White House And Big Tech Dance The Self-Regulation Tango, August 11 2023 Emily and Alex tackle the White House hype about the 'voluntary commitments' of companies to limit the harms of their large language models: but only some large language models, and only some, over-hyped kinds of harms.

Plus a full portion of Fresh Hell...and a little bit of good news.


References:

White House press release on voluntary commitments
Emily’s blog post critiquing the “voluntary commitments”
An “AI safety” infused take on regulation

AI Causes Real Harm. Let’s Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype
“AI” Hurts Consumers and Workers — and Isn’t Intelligent

Fresh AI Hell:

Future of Life Institute hijacks SEO for EU's AI Act

LLMs for denying health insurance claims

NHS using “AI” as receptionist

Automated robots in reception

Can AI language models replace human research participants?

A recipe chatbot taught users how to make chlorine gas

Using a chatbot to pretend to interview Harriet Tubman

Worldcoin Orbs & iris scans

Martin Shkreli’s AI for health start up

Authors impersonated with fraudulent books on Amazon/Goodreads


Good News:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex tackle the White House hype about the 'voluntary commitments' of companies to limit the harms of their large language models: but only some large language models, and only some, over-hyped kinds of harms.

Plus a full portion of Fresh Hell...and a little bit of good news.


References:

White House press release on voluntary commitments
Emily’s blog post critiquing the “voluntary commitments”
An “AI safety” infused take on regulation

AI Causes Real Harm. Let’s Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype
“AI” Hurts Consumers and Workers — and Isn’t Intelligent

Fresh AI Hell:

Future of Life Institute hijacks SEO for EU's AI Act

LLMs for denying health insurance claims

NHS using “AI” as receptionist

Automated robots in reception

Can AI language models replace human research participants?

A recipe chatbot taught users how to make chlorine gas

Using a chatbot to pretend to interview Harriet Tubman

Worldcoin Orbs & iris scans

Martin Shkreli’s AI for health start up

Authors impersonated with fraudulent books on Amazon/Goodreads


Good News:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13612292 Wed, 20 Sep 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3845 policy, AI, technology, science, artificial intelligence, large language models, natural language processing, chatgpt, ai safety 15 full true Episode 14: Henry Kissinger, Machines of War, and the Age of Military AI Hype (feat. Lucy Suchman), July 21 2023 Episode 14: Henry Kissinger, Machines of War, and the Age of Military AI Hype (feat. Lucy Suchman), July 21 2023 Emily and Alex are joined by technology scholar Dr. Lucy Suchman to scrutinize a new book from Henry Kissinger and coauthors Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher that declares a new 'Age of AI,' with abundant hype about the capacity of large language models for warmaking. Plus close scrutiny of Palantir's debut of an artificial intelligence platform for combat, and why the company is promising more than the mathy-maths can provide.

Dr. Lucy Suchman is a professor emerita of sociology at Lancaster University in the UK. She works at the intersections of anthropology and the field of feminist science and technology studies, focused on cultural imaginaries and material practices of technology design. Her current research extends her longstanding critical engagement with the fields of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction to the domain of contemporary militarism. She is concerned with the question of whose bodies are incorporated into military systems, how and with what consequences for social justice and the possibility for a less violent world.

This episode was recorded on July 21, 2023. Watch the video on PeerTube.


References:

Wall Street Journal: OpEd derived from 'The Age of AI' (Kissinger, Schmidt & Huttenlocher)

American Prospect: Meredith Whittaker & Lucy Suchman’s review of Kissinger et al’s book

VICE: Palantir Demos AI To Fight Wars But Says It Will Be Totally Ethical About It Don't Worry About It 


Fresh AI Hell:

American Psychological Association: how to cite ChatGPT
https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt

Spam reviews & children’s books:
https://twitter.com/millbot/status/1671008061173952512?s=20

An analysis we like, comparing AI to the fossil fuel industry:
https://hachyderm.io/@dalias/110528154854288688

AI Heaven from Dolly Parton:
https://consequence.net/2023/07/dolly-parton-ai-hologram-comments/

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex are joined by technology scholar Dr. Lucy Suchman to scrutinize a new book from Henry Kissinger and coauthors Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher that declares a new 'Age of AI,' with abundant hype about the capacity of large language models for warmaking. Plus close scrutiny of Palantir's debut of an artificial intelligence platform for combat, and why the company is promising more than the mathy-maths can provide.

Dr. Lucy Suchman is a professor emerita of sociology at Lancaster University in the UK. She works at the intersections of anthropology and the field of feminist science and technology studies, focused on cultural imaginaries and material practices of technology design. Her current research extends her longstanding critical engagement with the fields of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction to the domain of contemporary militarism. She is concerned with the question of whose bodies are incorporated into military systems, how and with what consequences for social justice and the possibility for a less violent world.

This episode was recorded on July 21, 2023. Watch the video on PeerTube.


References:

Wall Street Journal: OpEd derived from 'The Age of AI' (Kissinger, Schmidt & Huttenlocher)

American Prospect: Meredith Whittaker & Lucy Suchman’s review of Kissinger et al’s book

VICE: Palantir Demos AI To Fight Wars But Says It Will Be Totally Ethical About It Don't Worry About It 


Fresh AI Hell:

American Psychological Association: how to cite ChatGPT
https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt

Spam reviews & children’s books:
https://twitter.com/millbot/status/1671008061173952512?s=20

An analysis we like, comparing AI to the fossil fuel industry:
https://hachyderm.io/@dalias/110528154854288688

AI Heaven from Dolly Parton:
https://consequence.net/2023/07/dolly-parton-ai-hologram-comments/

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Buzzsprout-13570555 Wed, 13 Sep 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3675 14 full false Episode 13: Beware The Robo-Therapist (feat. Hannah Zeavin), June 8 2023 Episode 13: Beware The Robo-Therapist (feat. Hannah Zeavin), June 8 2023 Emily and Alex talk to UC Berkeley scholar Hannah Zeavin about the case of the National Eating Disorders Association helpline, which tried to replace human volunteers with a chatbot--and why the datafication and automation of mental health services are an injustice that will disproportionately affect the already vulnerable.

Content note: This is a conversation that touches on mental health, people in crisis, and exploitation.

This episode was originally recorded on June 8, 2023. Watch the video version on PeerTube.

Hannah Zeavin is a scholar, writer, and editor whose work centers on the history of human sciences (psychoanalysis, psychology, and psychiatry), the history of technology and media, feminist science and technology studies, and media theory. Zeavin is an Assistant Professor of the History of Science in the Department of History and The Berkeley Center for New Media at UC Berkeley. She is the author of, "The Distance Cure: A History of Teletherapy."

References:

VICE: Eating Disorder Helpline Fires Staff, Transitions to Chatbot After Unionization

… and then pulls the chatbot.

NPR: Can an AI chatbot help people with eating disorders as well as another human?

Psychiatrist.com: NEDA suspends AI chatbot for giving harmful eating disorder advice

Politico: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions

Danah Boyd: Crisis Text Line from my perspective.

Tech Workers Coalition: Chatbots can't care like we do.

Slate: Who's listening when you call a crisis hotline? Helplines and the carceral system.

Hannah Zeavin:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex talk to UC Berkeley scholar Hannah Zeavin about the case of the National Eating Disorders Association helpline, which tried to replace human volunteers with a chatbot--and why the datafication and automation of mental health services are an injustice that will disproportionately affect the already vulnerable.

Content note: This is a conversation that touches on mental health, people in crisis, and exploitation.

This episode was originally recorded on June 8, 2023. Watch the video version on PeerTube.

Hannah Zeavin is a scholar, writer, and editor whose work centers on the history of human sciences (psychoanalysis, psychology, and psychiatry), the history of technology and media, feminist science and technology studies, and media theory. Zeavin is an Assistant Professor of the History of Science in the Department of History and The Berkeley Center for New Media at UC Berkeley. She is the author of, "The Distance Cure: A History of Teletherapy."

References:

VICE: Eating Disorder Helpline Fires Staff, Transitions to Chatbot After Unionization

… and then pulls the chatbot.

NPR: Can an AI chatbot help people with eating disorders as well as another human?

Psychiatrist.com: NEDA suspends AI chatbot for giving harmful eating disorder advice

Politico: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions

Danah Boyd: Crisis Text Line from my perspective.

Tech Workers Coalition: Chatbots can't care like we do.

Slate: Who's listening when you call a crisis hotline? Helplines and the carceral system.

Hannah Zeavin:

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13544940 Thu, 07 Sep 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3653 artificial intelligence, AI, generative AI, machine learning, large language models, chatgpt, mental health, robotherapist, teletherapy 13 full true Episode 12: It's All Hell, May 5 2023 Episode 12: It's All Hell, May 5 2023 Take a deep breath and join Alex and Emily in AI Hell itself, as they take down a month's worth of hype in a mere 60 minutes.

This episode aired on Friday, May 5, 2023.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

Terrifying NEJM article on GPT-4 in medicine

“Healthcare professionals preferred ChatGPT 79% of the time”

Good thoughts from various experts in response

ChatGPT supposedly reading dental x-rays

Chatbots “need” therapists

CEO proposes AI therapist, removes proposal upon realizing there’s regulation:
https://twitter.com/BEASTMODE/status/1650013819693944833 (deleted)

ChatGPT is more carbon efficient than human writers

Asking disinformation machine for confirmation bias

GPT-4 glasses to tell you what to say on dates, "Charisma as a Service"

Context-aware fill for missing data

“Overemployed” with help from ChatGPT

Pakistani court uses GPT-4 in bail decision

ChatGPT in Peruvian and Mexican courts

Elon Musk’s deepfake defense

Elon Musk's TruthGPT

Fake interview in German publication revealed as “AI” at the end of the article

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Take a deep breath and join Alex and Emily in AI Hell itself, as they take down a month's worth of hype in a mere 60 minutes.

This episode aired on Friday, May 5, 2023.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

Terrifying NEJM article on GPT-4 in medicine

“Healthcare professionals preferred ChatGPT 79% of the time”

Good thoughts from various experts in response

ChatGPT supposedly reading dental x-rays

Chatbots “need” therapists

CEO proposes AI therapist, removes proposal upon realizing there’s regulation:
https://twitter.com/BEASTMODE/status/1650013819693944833 (deleted)

ChatGPT is more carbon efficient than human writers

Asking disinformation machine for confirmation bias

GPT-4 glasses to tell you what to say on dates, "Charisma as a Service"

Context-aware fill for missing data

“Overemployed” with help from ChatGPT

Pakistani court uses GPT-4 in bail decision

ChatGPT in Peruvian and Mexican courts

Elon Musk’s deepfake defense

Elon Musk's TruthGPT

Fake interview in German publication revealed as “AI” at the end of the article

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13474942 Tue, 29 Aug 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3672 artificial intelligence, generative AI, machine learning, AI hell, chatgpt, large language models, technology ethics 12 full true Episode 11: A GPT-4 Fanfiction Novella, April 7 2023 Episode 11: A GPT-4 Fanfiction Novella, April 7 2023 After a hype-y few weeks of AI happenings, Alex and Emily shovel the BS on GPT-4’s “system card,” its alleged “sparks of Artificial General Intelligence,” and a criti-hype heavy "AI pause" letter. Hint: for a good time, check the citations.

This episode originally aired on Friday, April 7, 2023.

You can also watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

GPT-4 system card: https://cdn.openai.com/papers/gpt-4-system-card.pdf
“Sparks of AGI” hype: https://twitter.com/SebastienBubeck/status/1638704164770332674
And the preprint from Bubeck et al.: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12712

“Pause AI” letter: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/

The “Sparks” paper points to this 1997 editorial in their definition of “intelligence”:
https://www1.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/1997mainstream.pdf

Radiolab's miniseries, 'G': https://radiolab.org/series/radiolab-presents-g

Baria and Cross, "The brain is a computer is a brain.": https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.14042

Senator Chris Murphy buys the hype:
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1640186536825061376

Generative “AI” is making “police sketches”:
https://twitter.com/Wolven/status/1624299508371804161?t=DXyucCPYPAKNn8TtAo0xeg&s=19

More mathy math in policing:
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/aurora-police-new-ai-system-bodycam-footage/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

User Research without the Users:
https://twitter.com/schock/status/1643392611560878086

DoNotPay is here to cancel your gym membership:
https://twitter.com/BrianBrackeen/status/1644193519496511488?s=20


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> After a hype-y few weeks of AI happenings, Alex and Emily shovel the BS on GPT-4’s “system card,” its alleged “sparks of Artificial General Intelligence,” and a criti-hype heavy "AI pause" letter. Hint: for a good time, check the citations.

This episode originally aired on Friday, April 7, 2023.

You can also watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

GPT-4 system card: https://cdn.openai.com/papers/gpt-4-system-card.pdf
“Sparks of AGI” hype: https://twitter.com/SebastienBubeck/status/1638704164770332674
And the preprint from Bubeck et al.: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12712

“Pause AI” letter: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/

The “Sparks” paper points to this 1997 editorial in their definition of “intelligence”:
https://www1.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/1997mainstream.pdf

Radiolab's miniseries, 'G': https://radiolab.org/series/radiolab-presents-g

Baria and Cross, "The brain is a computer is a brain.": https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.14042

Senator Chris Murphy buys the hype:
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1640186536825061376

Generative “AI” is making “police sketches”:
https://twitter.com/Wolven/status/1624299508371804161?t=DXyucCPYPAKNn8TtAo0xeg&s=19

More mathy math in policing:
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/aurora-police-new-ai-system-bodycam-footage/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

User Research without the Users:
https://twitter.com/schock/status/1643392611560878086

DoNotPay is here to cancel your gym membership:
https://twitter.com/BrianBrackeen/status/1644193519496511488?s=20


Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Buzzsprout-13460873 Thu, 24 Aug 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3801 artificial intelligence, AI, machine learning, large language models, chatgpt, gpt-4 11 full true Episode 10: Don't Be A Lawyer, ChatGPT. March 3, 2023 Episode 10: Don't Be A Lawyer, ChatGPT. March 3, 2023 Alex and Emily are taking AI to court! Amid big claims about LLMs, a look at the facts about ChatGPT, legal expertise, and what the bar exam actually tells you about someone's ability to practice law--with help from Harvard legal and technology scholar Kendra Albert.

This episode was first recorded on March 3, 2023.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:
Social Science Research Network paper “written” by ChatGPT

Joe Wanzala, “ChatGPT is ideal for eDiscovery”

Legal applications for ChatGPT:
Shot: GPT-4 'could pass the. bar exam'
Chaser: ChatGPT had bigger dreams. 

"AI for law"

“AI can legally run a company”

Wired: Generative AI Is Coming for the Lawyers

“This is a decision by a Colombian court in Cartagena (dated January, 30, 2023).
As far as we know, it is the first time that a judicial decision has been taken by explicitly resorting to #ChatGPT @sama @OpenAI. The Court poses a series of specific questions to #ChatGPT"

"Don't Be A Lawyer" song from "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"

Rep. Ted Lieu introduces legislation written by an LLM

DoNotPay offers money to anyone willing to use their AI to argue in court

Fresh AI Hell:

Vanderbilt University responds to MSU shooting with e-mail written using ChatGPT

Science fiction magazine closes submissions due to LLM spam

The 1st International Workshop on Implicit Author Characterization from Texts for Search and Ret

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Alex and Emily are taking AI to court! Amid big claims about LLMs, a look at the facts about ChatGPT, legal expertise, and what the bar exam actually tells you about someone's ability to practice law--with help from Harvard legal and technology scholar Kendra Albert.

This episode was first recorded on March 3, 2023.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:
Social Science Research Network paper “written” by ChatGPT

Joe Wanzala, “ChatGPT is ideal for eDiscovery”

Legal applications for ChatGPT:
Shot: GPT-4 'could pass the. bar exam'
Chaser: ChatGPT had bigger dreams. 

"AI for law"

“AI can legally run a company”

Wired: Generative AI Is Coming for the Lawyers

“This is a decision by a Colombian court in Cartagena (dated January, 30, 2023).
As far as we know, it is the first time that a judicial decision has been taken by explicitly resorting to #ChatGPT @sama @OpenAI. The Court poses a series of specific questions to #ChatGPT"

"Don't Be A Lawyer" song from "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"

Rep. Ted Lieu introduces legislation written by an LLM

DoNotPay offers money to anyone willing to use their AI to argue in court

Fresh AI Hell:

Vanderbilt University responds to MSU shooting with e-mail written using ChatGPT

Science fiction magazine closes submissions due to LLM spam

The 1st International Workshop on Implicit Author Characterization from Texts for Search and Ret

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Buzzsprout-13414023 Wed, 16 Aug 2023 02:00:00 -0700 4009 artificial intelligence, AI, generative AI, machine learning, law, bar exam, courtrooms 10 full true Episode 9: Call the AI Quack Doctor, February 17, 2023 Episode 9: Call the AI Quack Doctor, February 17, 2023 Should the mathy-maths be telling doctors what might be wrong with you? And can they actually help train medical professionals to treat human patients? Alex and Emily discuss the not-so-real medical and healthcare applications of ChatGPT and other large language models.

Plus another round of fresh AI hell, featuring "charisma as a service," and other assorted reasons to tear your hair out.

This episode was first recorded on February 17th of 2023.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:
Glass.ai makes “diagnosis machine”:
https://twitter.com/AiBreakfast/status/1620128621821317125?t=Q6tTAOcGAoFJ3Ko9m4EC9g&s=19

Percy Liang claims 'PubMedGPT' can pass medical exams:
https://crfm.stanford.edu/2022/12/15/pubmedgpt.html
https://twitter.com/percyliang/status/1603469265583353856?s=20&t=SdWeINzUw92pbkTO8OAVqQ

Emily's reaction to the above:
https://twitter.com/emilymbender/status/1603766381807570944?s=20&t=SdWeINzUw92pbkTO8OAVqQ

ChatGPT gets 60 percent of questions right in US Medical Licensing Exam:
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/chatgpt-passes-us-medical-licensing-exam-without-clinician-input

An Apple Watch error is clogging up 911 lines:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/health/apple-watch-911-emergency-call.html

ChatGPT-assisted diagnosis: Is the future suddenly here?
https://www.statnews.com/2023/02/13/chatgpt-assisted-diagnosis/

NVIDIA “eye contact” demo:
https://twitter.com/Jousefm2/status/1616878021280993284

“Theory of the mind":
https://twitter.com/LChoshen/status/1623575423652139015?t=Ohc9tzB09pAEddAReLc6mA&s=09

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Should the mathy-maths be telling doctors what might be wrong with you? And can they actually help train medical professionals to treat human patients? Alex and Emily discuss the not-so-real medical and healthcare applications of ChatGPT and other large language models.

Plus another round of fresh AI hell, featuring "charisma as a service," and other assorted reasons to tear your hair out.

This episode was first recorded on February 17th of 2023.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:
Glass.ai makes “diagnosis machine”:
https://twitter.com/AiBreakfast/status/1620128621821317125?t=Q6tTAOcGAoFJ3Ko9m4EC9g&s=19

Percy Liang claims 'PubMedGPT' can pass medical exams:
https://crfm.stanford.edu/2022/12/15/pubmedgpt.html
https://twitter.com/percyliang/status/1603469265583353856?s=20&t=SdWeINzUw92pbkTO8OAVqQ

Emily's reaction to the above:
https://twitter.com/emilymbender/status/1603766381807570944?s=20&t=SdWeINzUw92pbkTO8OAVqQ

ChatGPT gets 60 percent of questions right in US Medical Licensing Exam:
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/chatgpt-passes-us-medical-licensing-exam-without-clinician-input

An Apple Watch error is clogging up 911 lines:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/health/apple-watch-911-emergency-call.html

ChatGPT-assisted diagnosis: Is the future suddenly here?
https://www.statnews.com/2023/02/13/chatgpt-assisted-diagnosis/

NVIDIA “eye contact” demo:
https://twitter.com/Jousefm2/status/1616878021280993284

“Theory of the mind":
https://twitter.com/LChoshen/status/1623575423652139015?t=Ohc9tzB09pAEddAReLc6mA&s=09

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Buzzsprout-13365502 Tue, 08 Aug 2023 02:00:00 -0700 3759 artificial intelligence, AI, generative AI, machine learning, natural language processing, science, technology, ethics, large language models, healthcare, medicine, diagnosis 9 full true Episode 8: The ChatGPT Awakens, January 20, 2023 Episode 8: The ChatGPT Awakens, January 20, 2023 New year, new hype? As the world gets swept up in the fervor over ChatGPT of late 2022, Emily and Alex give a deep sigh and begin to unpack the wave of fresh enthusiasm over large language models and the "chat" format specifically.

Plus, more fresh AI hell.

This episode was recorded on January 20, 2023.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

Situating Search (Shah & Bender 2022) 

Related op-ed: https://iai.tv/articles/all-knowing-machines-are-a-fantasy-auid-2334

Piantadosi's thread showing ChatGPT writing a program to classify white males as good scientists

Find Anna Lauren Hoffman's publications (though not yet the one we were referring to) here: https://www.annaeveryday.com/publications

Sarah T. Roberts, Behind the Screen 

Karen Hao's AI Colonialism series 

Milagros Miceli: https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/spezialseiten/persons-details/p/milagros-miceli/

Julian Posada: https://posada.website/

“This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data (Klassen & Fiesler 2022) 

No Humans Here: Ethical Speculation on Public Data, Unintended Consequences, and the Limits of Institutional Review (Pater, Fiesler & Zimmer 2022) 

Casey Fiesler's publications: https://caseyfiesler.com/publications/
And TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@professorcasey

Where are human subjects in Big Data research? The emerging ethics divide. (Metcalf & Crawford 2016) 

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> New year, new hype? As the world gets swept up in the fervor over ChatGPT of late 2022, Emily and Alex give a deep sigh and begin to unpack the wave of fresh enthusiasm over large language models and the "chat" format specifically.

Plus, more fresh AI hell.

This episode was recorded on January 20, 2023.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

Situating Search (Shah & Bender 2022) 

Related op-ed: https://iai.tv/articles/all-knowing-machines-are-a-fantasy-auid-2334

Piantadosi's thread showing ChatGPT writing a program to classify white males as good scientists

Find Anna Lauren Hoffman's publications (though not yet the one we were referring to) here: https://www.annaeveryday.com/publications

Sarah T. Roberts, Behind the Screen 

Karen Hao's AI Colonialism series 

Milagros Miceli: https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/spezialseiten/persons-details/p/milagros-miceli/

Julian Posada: https://posada.website/

“This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data (Klassen & Fiesler 2022) 

No Humans Here: Ethical Speculation on Public Data, Unintended Consequences, and the Limits of Institutional Review (Pater, Fiesler & Zimmer 2022) 

Casey Fiesler's publications: https://caseyfiesler.com/publications/
And TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@professorcasey

Where are human subjects in Big Data research? The emerging ethics divide. (Metcalf & Crawford 2016) 

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13347091 Fri, 04 Aug 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3853 chatgpt, artificial intelligence, generative ai, large language models, science, technology, society and technology 8 full true Episode 7: There Are Now 15 Competing Evaluation Metrics (ft. Dr. Jeremy Kahn). December 12, 2022 Episode 7: There Are Now 15 Competing Evaluation Metrics (ft. Dr. Jeremy Kahn). December 12, 2022 Emily and Alex are joined by Dr. Jeremy G. Kahn to discuss the distressingly large number of evaluation metrics for artificial intelligence, and some new AI hell.

Jeremy G. Kahn has a PhD in computational linguistics, with a focus on information-theoretic and empirical engineering approaches to dealing with natural language (in text and speech). He’s gregarious, polyglot, a semi-auto-didact, and occasionally prolix. He also likes comic books, coffee, progressive politics, information theory, lateral thinking, science fiction, science fact, linear thinking, bicycles, beer, meditation, love, play, and inquiry. He lives in Seattle with his wife Dorothy and son Elliott.

This episode was recorded on December 12, 2022.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.


References:

XKCD: Standards

WikidataCon

Gish Gallop

The Bender Rule

DJ Khaled - You Played Yourself

Jeff Kao's interrogation of public comment periods.

Emily's blog post response to NYT piece

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex are joined by Dr. Jeremy G. Kahn to discuss the distressingly large number of evaluation metrics for artificial intelligence, and some new AI hell.

Jeremy G. Kahn has a PhD in computational linguistics, with a focus on information-theoretic and empirical engineering approaches to dealing with natural language (in text and speech). He’s gregarious, polyglot, a semi-auto-didact, and occasionally prolix. He also likes comic books, coffee, progressive politics, information theory, lateral thinking, science fiction, science fact, linear thinking, bicycles, beer, meditation, love, play, and inquiry. He lives in Seattle with his wife Dorothy and son Elliott.

This episode was recorded on December 12, 2022.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.


References:

XKCD: Standards

WikidataCon

Gish Gallop

The Bender Rule

DJ Khaled - You Played Yourself

Jeff Kao's interrogation of public comment periods.

Emily's blog post response to NYT piece

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13283050 Wed, 26 Jul 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3794 7 full true Episode 6: Stochastic Parrot Galactica, November 23, 2022 Episode 6: Stochastic Parrot Galactica, November 23, 2022 Emily and Alex discuss MetaAI's bullshit science paper generator, Galactica, along with its defenders. Plus, where could AI actually help scientific research? And more Fresh AI Hell.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

Imre Lakatos on research programs

Shah, Chirag and Emily M. Bender. 2022. Situating Search. Proceedings of the 2022 ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR ’22).

UW RAISE (Responsibility in AI Systems and Experiences)

Stochastic Parrots:
Bender, Emily M., Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Shmargaret Shmitchell. 2021. On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜. In Proceedings of FAccT 2021, pp.610-623.

The Octopus Paper:
Bender Emily M. and Alexander Koller. 2020. Climbing towards NLU: On Meaning, Form, and Understanding in the Age of Data. ACL 2020

Palestinian man arrested because of bad machine translation.

Katherine McKittrick, Dear Science and Other Stories

The Sokal Hoax

Safiya Noble, Algorithms of Oppression

Latanya Sweeney, "Discrimination in Online Ad Delivery"

Mehtab Khan and Alex Hanna, The Subjects and Stages of AI Dataset Development: A Framework for Dataset Accountability

(What is 'sealioning'?)
http://wondermark.com/1k62/

Grover:
Raji, Inioluwa Deborah, Emily M. Bender, Amandalynne Paullada, Emily Denton and Alex Hanna. 2021. AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark. Proceedings of the 35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2021) Track on Datasets and Benchmarks.

Ben Dickson's coverage of Grover:
W

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex discuss MetaAI's bullshit science paper generator, Galactica, along with its defenders. Plus, where could AI actually help scientific research? And more Fresh AI Hell.

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

Imre Lakatos on research programs

Shah, Chirag and Emily M. Bender. 2022. Situating Search. Proceedings of the 2022 ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR ’22).

UW RAISE (Responsibility in AI Systems and Experiences)

Stochastic Parrots:
Bender, Emily M., Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Shmargaret Shmitchell. 2021. On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜. In Proceedings of FAccT 2021, pp.610-623.

The Octopus Paper:
Bender Emily M. and Alexander Koller. 2020. Climbing towards NLU: On Meaning, Form, and Understanding in the Age of Data. ACL 2020

Palestinian man arrested because of bad machine translation.

Katherine McKittrick, Dear Science and Other Stories

The Sokal Hoax

Safiya Noble, Algorithms of Oppression

Latanya Sweeney, "Discrimination in Online Ad Delivery"

Mehtab Khan and Alex Hanna, The Subjects and Stages of AI Dataset Development: A Framework for Dataset Accountability

(What is 'sealioning'?)
http://wondermark.com/1k62/

Grover:
Raji, Inioluwa Deborah, Emily M. Bender, Amandalynne Paullada, Emily Denton and Alex Hanna. 2021. AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark. Proceedings of the 35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2021) Track on Datasets and Benchmarks.

Ben Dickson's coverage of Grover:
W

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13237698 Mon, 17 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0700 3792 artificial intelligence, AI, generative AI, machine learning, natural language processing, science, technology, ethics, large language models 6 full true Episode 5: Sam Bankman-Fried's Future Fund, November 9 2022 Episode 5: Sam Bankman-Fried's Future Fund, November 9 2022 Emily and Alex discuss Sam Bankman-Fried's Future Fund, its essay contest, and the problems with using AI for prediction and resource allocation--mere days before the collapse of FTX. Also, we introduce our "What in the Fresh AI Hell?" segment!

This episode was recorded on November 9, 2022. 

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

Super Forecasting And AI

Bill Howe - Applied AI in High-Expertise Settings or Curation as Programming

Samir Passi and Solon Barocos - "Problem Formulation in Fairness"

Vinod Prabharakan, William Isaac, Donald Martin Jr - Participatory Problem Formation for Fairer Machine Learning

David Ribes, Andrew S Hoffman, Steven C Slota and Geoffrey C Bowker -
The Logic of Domains

Shoshana Zuboff - The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Lee Vinsel on Criti-hype - Notes on Criticism and Technology Hype

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily and Alex discuss Sam Bankman-Fried's Future Fund, its essay contest, and the problems with using AI for prediction and resource allocation--mere days before the collapse of FTX. Also, we introduce our "What in the Fresh AI Hell?" segment!

This episode was recorded on November 9, 2022. 

Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

References:

Super Forecasting And AI

Bill Howe - Applied AI in High-Expertise Settings or Curation as Programming

Samir Passi and Solon Barocos - "Problem Formulation in Fairness"

Vinod Prabharakan, William Isaac, Donald Martin Jr - Participatory Problem Formation for Fairer Machine Learning

David Ribes, Andrew S Hoffman, Steven C Slota and Geoffrey C Bowker -
The Logic of Domains

Shoshana Zuboff - The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Lee Vinsel on Criti-hype - Notes on Criticism and Technology Hype

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Buzzsprout-13199202 Tue, 11 Jul 2023 03:00:00 -0700 3548 5 full true Episode 4: Is AI Art Actually 'Art'? October 26, 2022 Episode 4: Is AI Art Actually 'Art'? October 26, 2022 AI is increasingly being used to make visual art. But when is an algorithmically-generated image art...and when is it just an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of pixels? Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna talk to a panel of artists and researchers about the hype, the ethics, and even the definitions of art when a computer is involved.

This episode was recorded in October of 2022. You can watch the video on PeerTube.

Dr. Johnathan Flowers is an assistant professor in the department of philosophy at California State University, Northridge. His research interest is at the intersection of American Pragmatism, Philosophy of Disability, and Philosophy of Race, Gender and Sexuality as they apply to socio-technical systems. Flowers also explores the impacts of cultural narratives on the perception and development of sociotechnical systems.

Dr. Jennifer Lena is a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she runs the Arts Administration program. She’s published books on music genres, the legitimation of art, and the measurement of culture.

Dr. Negar Rostamzadeh is a Senior Research Scientist at Google Responsible AI team. Her recent research is at the intersection of computer vision and sociotechnical research. She studies creative computer vision technologies and the broader social impact of them. 

Kevin Roose, "An A.I.-Generated Picture Won an Art Prize. Artists Aren’t Happy."

Jo Lawson-Tancred, "Robot Artist Ai-Da Just Addressed U.K. Parliament About the Future of A.I. and ‘Terrified’ the House of Lords"

Marco Donnarumma, "AI Art Is Soft Propaganda for the Global North"

Jane Recker, "U.S. Copyright Office Rules A.I. Art Can’t Be Copyrighted"

Richard Whiddington, "Shutterstock Inks Deal With DALL-E Creator to Offer A.I.-Generated Stock Images. Not All Artists Are Rejoicing."

Stephen Cave and Kanta Dihal, "The Whiteness of AI"


Follow our guests:
Dr. Johnathan Flowers - https://twitter.com/shengokai // https://zirk.us/@shengokai
Dr. Negar Rostamzadeh - twitter.com/negar_rz
Dr. Jennifer Lena - https://twitter.com/WITWhat // https://sciences.social/@jenniferclena

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> AI is increasingly being used to make visual art. But when is an algorithmically-generated image art...and when is it just an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of pixels? Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna talk to a panel of artists and researchers about the hype, the ethics, and even the definitions of art when a computer is involved.

This episode was recorded in October of 2022. You can watch the video on PeerTube.

Dr. Johnathan Flowers is an assistant professor in the department of philosophy at California State University, Northridge. His research interest is at the intersection of American Pragmatism, Philosophy of Disability, and Philosophy of Race, Gender and Sexuality as they apply to socio-technical systems. Flowers also explores the impacts of cultural narratives on the perception and development of sociotechnical systems.

Dr. Jennifer Lena is a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she runs the Arts Administration program. She’s published books on music genres, the legitimation of art, and the measurement of culture.

Dr. Negar Rostamzadeh is a Senior Research Scientist at Google Responsible AI team. Her recent research is at the intersection of computer vision and sociotechnical research. She studies creative computer vision technologies and the broader social impact of them. 

Kevin Roose, "An A.I.-Generated Picture Won an Art Prize. Artists Aren’t Happy."

Jo Lawson-Tancred, "Robot Artist Ai-Da Just Addressed U.K. Parliament About the Future of A.I. and ‘Terrified’ the House of Lords"

Marco Donnarumma, "AI Art Is Soft Propaganda for the Global North"

Jane Recker, "U.S. Copyright Office Rules A.I. Art Can’t Be Copyrighted"

Richard Whiddington, "Shutterstock Inks Deal With DALL-E Creator to Offer A.I.-Generated Stock Images. Not All Artists Are Rejoicing."

Stephen Cave and Kanta Dihal, "The Whiteness of AI"


Follow our guests:
Dr. Johnathan Flowers - https://twitter.com/shengokai // https://zirk.us/@shengokai
Dr. Negar Rostamzadeh - twitter.com/negar_rz
Dr. Jennifer Lena - https://twitter.com/WITWhat // https://sciences.social/@jenniferclena

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13147638 Sun, 02 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0700 3818 4 full true Episode 3: "Can Machines Learn To Behave?" Part 3, September 23, 2022 Episode 3: "Can Machines Learn To Behave?" Part 3, September 23, 2022 Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna kick off the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series by reading through, "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Google VP who works on artificial intelligence.

This episode was recorded in September of 2022, and is the last of three about Aguera y Arcas' post.

You can watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna kick off the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series by reading through, "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Google VP who works on artificial intelligence.

This episode was recorded in September of 2022, and is the last of three about Aguera y Arcas' post.

You can watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13068571 Mon, 19 Jun 2023 12:00:00 -0700 3780 artificial intelligence, AI, generative AI, machine learning, natural language processing, science, technology, ethics, large language models 3 full true Episode 2: "Can Machines Learn To Behave?" Part 2, September 6, 2022 Episode 2: "Can Machines Learn To Behave?" Part 2, September 6, 2022 Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna kick off the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series by reading through, "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Google VP who works on artificial intelligence.

This episode was recorded in September of 2022, and is the second of three about Aguera y Arcas' post.

You can also watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna kick off the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series by reading through, "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Google VP who works on artificial intelligence.

This episode was recorded in September of 2022, and is the second of three about Aguera y Arcas' post.

You can also watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-13066789 Mon, 19 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0700 3690 artificial intelligence, AI, generative AI, machine learning, natural language processing, science, technology, ethics, large language models 2 full true Episode 1: "Can Machines Learn To Behave?" Part 1, August 31, 2022 Episode 1: "Can Machines Learn To Behave?" Part 1, August 31, 2022 Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna kick off the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series by reading through, "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Google VP who works on artificial intelligence.

This episode was recorded in August of 2022, and is the first of three about Aguera y Arcas' post.

Watch the video stream on PeerTube.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna kick off the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series by reading through, "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Google VP who works on artificial intelligence.

This episode was recorded in August of 2022, and is the first of three about Aguera y Arcas' post.

Watch the video stream on PeerTube.

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

Alex

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. 
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

]]> Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Buzzsprout-12954384 Wed, 31 May 2023 10:00:00 -0700 2698 artificial intelligence, AI, generative AI, machine learning, natural language processing, science, technology, ethics, large language models 1 full true