Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

In the past year, tech companies have laid off thousands of employees. But when CEOs blame "AI innovation," they're redirecting attention from something much more predictable: job discrimination and gig-ification. Emily and Alex examine some narratives of AI-streamlined workplaces — and why they don't match up with reality. References: Block press release: "From Hierarchy to Intelligence" "Lawsuit claims Meta's layoff decisions were made by AI, not humans" Fresh AI Hell: "OpenAI’s latest math breakthroughs commit research misconduct, experts say" Also referenced: Leiden Declaration "AI Assisted Autism Screening" Weird comparison of "AI" emissions to other data center activity Paved paradise and put up a data center "What if you just talked to your children" Palate cleanser: US judge holds DOGE accountable for output they took from ChatGPT Palate cleanser: Data center opposition momentum 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park . Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

In the wake of OpenAI's announcement that its products caused a "cyber incident," Sam Altman is now claiming that we're already in the Singularity. And some media outlets are only too happy to help him advance that narrative! Alex and Emily tear up the AI boosters' latest claims of mathy maths combusting into consciousness. References: Business Insider: " Sam Altman says we are in the singularity: 'This is the moment' " Also referenced: Altman on the Relentless podcast Wall Street Journal: " How the Futuristic Hack by Rogue OpenAI Models Unfolded " Also referenced: OpenAI and Anthropic press releases MacAskill op ed in the Guardian: " Could AI be conscious? " Also referenced: Emily's Bluesky thread Fresh AI Hell: Google kills AlphaFold "Former executive accuses Mayo of cutting corners on AI research" Amazon wants to use Twitch streams to train gen AI "Meta used AI to target workers with medical conditions for layoffs, lawsuit claims " Meta contaminates water in Cheyenne "Humanoid robot teaching assistant" AI companies buying and destroying antique books Palate cleanser: Mathematicians clap back 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park . Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Lately, a new framework has been creeping into AI boosterism: "harm reduction," or "responsible use." Education technology scholar dr. sava saheli singh joins Alex and Emily to unpack narratives around automation inevitability in the classroom. Spoiler alert: they're not actually "reducing harm" to students at all! An interdisciplinary scholar and filmmaker, sava is currently working on a research project examining secondary school teachers’ experiences of genAI use, and making a film about the future of AI in education. Her speculative short film series on the harms of surveillance technology is available at screeningsurveillance.com . References: "Harm Reduction: A Strategy to Mitigate the Risks of AI" Also referenced: MAIHT3k newsletter, "How to talk about 'AI' without adding to the anthropomorphization" UNESCO "AI competency framework for students" Fresh AI Hell: Hallucination rebranded as "critical confabulation" "Pennsylvania Board of Medicine Alleges Unlawful Practice of Medicine by an AI Chatbot" "Google's smart home AI will be able to use clothing to identify people" "Medicare AI program made them suffer in pain. Now they want answers" "Why do these Castro gay bars have TSA-style face scanners?" "County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'" Palate cleanser: "Florida AG sues OpenAI, seeks to hold CEO Altman personally liable" Palate cleanser: "Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school" 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park . Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

AI boosters want to hand off emergency services to the bullshit generators. And horrifyingly, some medical professionals want to help them! Join Emily and Alex for a deep dive on the latest automated horrors threatening our collective health and safety. References: "The role of large language models in emergency care: a comprehensive benchmarking study" "Seattle uses AI to help triage, divert 911 medical calls" Also referenced: MAIHT3k newsletter on Seattle's 911 automation "FDA approves early warning system for sepsis" Also referenced: Underlying research paper on this system Fresh AI Hell: Family business stops shipping due to automated delivery nonsense Google CEO Sundar Pichai says people aren't "evolved" enough to understand AI "California judges are testing a new AI clerk, and you won't know if it’s looking at your case" Nonconsensual "AI monitors" for memory care Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the goal is Star Trek computer and/or R2D2 "A little surveillance break, as a treat" "Virtual child" chatbot company Chaser: Festus, MO residents vote out council members who approved data center 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park . Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

What should we do when the "AI" bubble pops? Emily and Alex are joined by researcher Matt Scherer, who recently published a report called "No Bailout for Big Tech Billionaires: Policies for when the AI bubble bursts." They unpack what the boosters are saying about their finances, and how we can all push back against arguments for a government bailout. Matt Scherer is a fellow at the anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute . He previously led the workers' rights project at the Center for Democracy & Technology. References: Forbes: "AI Can Change The World And Still Be A Bubble" Also referenced: Is AI Profitable Yet? CNBC: "Altman says some investors will be left 'very burnt'" CNBC: "Bezos brushes off concerns of an AI bubble: 'You shouldn’t worry about it' Fresh AI Hell: Empty Waymos create self-driving traffic jam "AA digital sponsor" Stanford researchers claim "AI agents...embrace Marxist ideologies" "Chatbots at the drive-thru" YouGov polling on automated juries Chaser: Erin Brockovich is on the case! AI Startup Says It Will Pay People $2,000 a Month to Masturbate Chaser: You used which brush!? 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park . Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

"Sure, LLMs are bad at some things, but you can't deny that they're useful for programming!" Sound familiar? In this week's episode, Emily and Alex break down the key myths around AI-boosted productivity in tech. Plus, Alex previews her work with DAIR's newly launched Luddite Lab , where workers are organizing against automation. References: Yale Budget Lab report: "What Might AI Adoption Mean for the Fiscal and Economic Outlook?" Also referenced: Karger et al. paper funded by Open Philanthropy Garry Tan’s gstack "Karpathy-Inspired Claude Code Guidelines" Previous MAIHT3k episodes referenced: Episode 60: Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox) Episode 53: Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday) Fresh AI Hell: Emotional surveillance at work DARPA call for proposals on "Decentralized Artificial Intelligence" CircleCI claims "the promised AI productivity boom isn’t all hype" Andreessen is at it again "A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed" Retraction of pro-edtech paper Chaser: "Minnesota passes the nation’s first ban on ‘nudification’ apps" 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park . Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Senator Bernie Sanders recently hosted a panel on "The Existential Threat of AI," featuring Future of Life Institute co-founder Max Tegmark and other x-riskers. Dr. Nathalie Maréchal joins Emily and Alex to unpack this latest stop on Bernie's descent into doomerism. We return to the MST3k model with a rare video artifact! Nathalie Maréchal is a writer, researcher and advocate fighting for democracy and human rights in the age of technofascism. Her latest article, "Tech Policy Is on the Front Line of Fascism vs. Democracy. Pick a Side," is available in Tech Policy Press. She is currently the managing policy director at Northeastern University’s Institute for Information, the Internet, and Democracy. References: "LIVE: The Existential Threat of AI and the Need for International Cooperation" Fresh AI Hell: "The AI Pledge for Humanity" petition Richard Dawkins force-femmes a chatbot Anthropic claims LLMs have "emotion concepts" Palantir wants us all to stop being mean to data centers "Optimizing LLM costs by inventing employees again" Luxury surveillance cat 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park . Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Last month, we recorded our very first in-person podcast, live from Brooklyn! Alex and Emily debunk an especially soulless hype artifact about Anthropic's absurd claims of "moral education" for chatbots. Tune in to hear our rendition of "There Was A Society That Swallowed AI," plus other fun surprises! References: "Claude has an 80-page 'soul document'" Fresh AI Hell: NYC schools "Guidance on Artificial Intelligence" "Therapy App Sessions Exposed in Court" Meta to track "employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training data" News org uses real journalist names on synthetic text "New Gas-Powered Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Entire Nations" "The first agentic cannabis device" TikTok auto–opts in users for "AI" remixes Oberlin students push back on "Year of AI Exploration" "This is just to say / I have turned off / the AI features" 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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: Appen blog post on "Why AI Must be Ethical and Responsible" Also referenced: "Gig workers in Africa have been helping the US military. They had no idea" DAIR's Data Workers' Inquiry Fresh AI Hell: Marc Andreessen says "there is no inner self" Rest of World call for stories on labor and tech Detrans.AI wants you to talk to fake detransitioners Melania proposes catwalking robot as replacement for teachers Microsoft sidelines Mustafa Suleyman Andrej Karpathy cooked by LLM usage "Sorry AI, you can't call yourself a nurse" Volunteer fire department rejects $250,000 Google donation 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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: Three Mile Island press release Sen. McCormick on AI investments in PA McCormick's wife Meta president Fresh AI Hell: Amazon data center targeted by Iran "AI-powered bombing quicker than 'speed of thought'" Meta's AI glasses use human reviewers (See also: original Swedish reporting ) Bernie posts video with Yudkowsky Grammarly offers fake advice as if from real writers Google data center water estimates "AI Doesn't Reduce Work—It Intensifies It" High schooler questions 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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: SpaceX press release on "space-based AI" "How data centres in space sustainably enable the AI revolution" Also referenced: Nvidia blog post on data centers in space Starcloud white paper Fresh AI Hell: Judge rules chatbots can't offer attorney-client privilege "RFK Jr's Nutrition Chatbot Recommends Best Foods to Insert Into Your Rectum" AI company seeks writer who doesn't use LLMs Altman likens AI energy use to human nutritional needs SXSW promoting panel with "AI speaker" The agent-erati just want servants News editor mad that journalism students don't want to use AI Simple rules for fighting fascist tech 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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: War Department press release on GenAI.mil Old-school racism from Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey "How artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of war" Previous episodes referenced: Episode 61: Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and Kate Brennan) Episode 50: Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara Kneese) Fresh AI Hell: "Cops Forced to Explain Why AI Generated Police Report Claimed Officer Transformed Into Frog" "Amazon outbids WA utility for one of nation's largest solar projects" "AI data centers are forcing dirty 'peaker' power plants back into service" "Mamdani Targets 'Unusable' AI Chatbot for Termination" 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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: "Stop Worrying, and Let A.I. Help Save Your Life" "Introducing ChatGPT Health" Also referenced: "No, I don't want an AI scribe to write my pulmonologist’s note" "The Danger of Intimate Algorithms" MAIHT3k Episode 62: The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie Harrison Dupré) Fresh AI Hell: Waymo files vague NHTSA report on crash that killed KitKat (See also: NHTSA Standing General Order on Crash Reporting ) "Medical Schools Use AI Patients to Help With Clinical Training" "What If Your Coffee Mug Knew Your Next Move? AI Researchers Made It Happen" "Monkeys are on the loose in St. Louis and AI is complicating efforts to capture them" Using LLMs to "infer race, ethnicity" Tech CEOs hate ridicule as praxis! 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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: "The Architects of AI Are TIME's 2025 Person of the Year" Stanford AI Index Report Also referenced: Original "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photo "The Number of People Using AI at Work Is Suddenly Falling" Fresh AI Hell: Fresh AI Hell, Wrapped Adobe for Education outputs sexualized images "'Low Tech ChatGPT' on physical paper" "Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications that trained neural networks on 'bonkers' dataset" Hologram lecturers and robot sandwich-makers "'ChatGPT for Doctors' Startup Doubles Valuation to $12 Billion as Revenue Surges" No more ideas. Need AIdeas! "For the First Time, AI Analyzes Language as Well as a Human Expert" "Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man’s Meta Smart Glasses on Subway" 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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: "A Definition of AGI" landing page and paper-shaped object Fresh AI Hell: "What If Sea Monkeys Constantly, Sometimes Dangerously, Bullshitted People" Doctronic, the "AI doctor" NIST reports companies cheat on "AI" evaluations "Microsoft Lowers Sales Staff's Growth Targets For Newer AI Software" "PEN Guild wins landmark arbitration on AI protections" "AI" assistant pop-up whack-a-mole 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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: " This Is No Way to Rule a Country " " Four ways AI is being used to strengthen democracies worldwide " Also referenced: Collective Intelligence Project surveys Interview with CalMatters CEO Fresh AI Hell: Amazon introduces AI translation for Kindle authors Nature op ed recommends AI versions of Einstein, Bohr, and Feynman An AI Podcasting Machine Is Churning Out 3,000 Episodes a Week AI dating café to open in New York Recipe slop flooding social media AI slop about Autism published in Nature Upwork ad for fixing LLM editorial " Hundreds of Chicago residents sign petition to pause robot delivery pilot program over safety concerns " 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna 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: Senate report: AI and Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade Senator Sanders' AI Report Ignores the Data on AI and Inequality Also referenced: MAIHT3k Episode 25: An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your Job Humlum paper: Large Language Models, Small Labor Market Effects Emily's blog post: Scholarship should be open, inclusive and slow Fresh AI Hell: Tech companies compelling vibe coding arXiv is overwhelmed by LLM slop 'Godfather of AI' says tech giants can't profit from their astronomical investments unless human labor is replaced If you want to satiate AI’s hunger for power, Google suggests going to space AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here Gen AI campaign against ranked choice voting Chaser: Workplace AI Implementation Bingo 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 Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park . Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.