Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna
  • 4.5 (50)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY
Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

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. 3D AGO

    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 at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now. 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 Christie Taylor.

    1h 17m

  2. JUN 20

    "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.  Production: Christie Taylor.  Graphic Design: Naomi Pleas Check out future streams at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now. 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 Christie Taylor.

    1 hr

  3. MAY 28

    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 at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now. 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 Christie Taylor.

    1h 2m

  4. MAY 14

    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 at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now. 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 Christie Taylor.

    1h 5m

  5. APR 30

    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 b******t 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" (from: Turing.com)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" Microsoft fires engineers who protested Israeli military use of its toolsPulling 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: We finally met!!! Check out future streams at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now. 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 Christie Taylor.

    1 hr

  6. APR 17

    "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 Via @maaikeverbruggen"AI" for psychotherapy, still bad, still hyped Biology (not) of LLMs Mark Cuban's grifty chatbot Via @HypervisiblePalate cleanser: "AI is the letdown" https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/tech/apple-ai-artificial-intelligence/index.html Comic relief: "Fortified with AI" Check out future streams at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now. 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 Christie Taylor.

    1h 3m

  7. APR 2

    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 Marketing video for Read AIZoom rebrands existing and introduces new generative AI features Marketing video for Zoom Revenue AcceleratorSpeech 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 at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now. 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 Christie Taylor.

    1 hr

  8. MAR 19

    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 at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now. 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 Christie Taylor.

    1 hr
See All (59)

4.5
out of 5
50 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 - 2025
  • Episodes
    59
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000
  • Show Website
    Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

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