Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna
  • 4.4 (71)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

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.

  1. FEB 26

    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: War Department press release on GenAI.milOld-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. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

    52 min

  2. FEB 12

    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: "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. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

    56 min

  3. JAN 30 · BONUS

    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. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

    41 min

  4. JAN 13

    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: "The Architects of AI Are TIME's 2025 Person of the Year"Stanford AI Index ReportAlso referenced: Original "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photo"The Number of People Using AI at Work Is Suddenly Falling"Fresh AI Hell: Fresh AI Hell, WrappedAdobe 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. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

    58 min

  5. 12/30/2025

    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: "A Definition of AGI" landing page and paper-shaped objectFresh 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-moleCheck out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

    55 min

  6. 12/16/2025

    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: "This Is No Way to Rule a Country""Four ways AI is being used to strengthen democracies worldwide"Also referenced: Collective Intelligence Project surveysInterview with CalMatters CEOFresh AI Hell: Amazon introduces AI translation for Kindle authorsNature op ed recommends AI versions of Einstein, Bohr, and FeynmanAn AI Podcasting Machine Is Churning Out 3,000 Episodes a WeekAI dating café to open in New YorkRecipe slop flooding social mediaAI slop about Autism published in NatureUpwork 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. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

    59 min

  7. 12/02/2025

    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: Senate report: AI and Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a DecadeSenator Sanders' AI Report Ignores the Data on AI and InequalityAlso referenced: MAIHT3k Episode 25: An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your JobHumlum paper: Large Language Models, Small Labor Market EffectsEmily's blog post: Scholarship should be open, inclusive and slowFresh AI Hell: Tech companies compelling vibe codingarXiv is overwhelmed by LLM slop'Godfather of AI' says tech giants can't profit from their astronomical investments unless human labor is replacedIf you want to satiate AI’s hunger for power, Google suggests going to spaceAI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already hereGen AI campaign against ranked choice votingChaser: Workplace AI Implementation BingoCheck out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

    53 min

  8. 11/18/2025

    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: Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

    57 min
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4.4
out of 5
71 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    74
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000
  • Show Website
    Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

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