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🦜 Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000: The Newsletter

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Artificial Intelligence has too much hype. In this companion newsletter, linguist Prof. Emily M. Bender and sociologist Dr. Alex Hanna break down the AI hype, separate fact from fiction, and science from bloviation. They talk about everything "AI", from machine consciousness to science fiction, to political economy to art made by machines.

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Posts: 10

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How Amazon Is Laying Off Some Workers While Spying on Others

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-amazon-is-laying-off-some-workers/

Published: October 30, 2025 17:23

As the company lays off thousands workers, a new DAIR report reveals how Amazon surveills and punishes its delivery drivers By Decca Muldowney and Alex Hanna It was revealed this week that Amazon is planning to lay off anywhere between 14,000 to 30,000…

Reflecting on "AI" in the Himalayan foothills

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/reflecting-on-ai-in-the-himalayan-foothills/

Published: October 22, 2025 13:00

By Emily The Himalayan foothills, as seen from the kora walk around the Dalai Lama’s temple complex Last week, I had the immense good fortune to participate in the 39th Mind and Life Dialogue, hosted at the Dalai Lama Library and Archives in Dharamsala,…

Sora 2 Serves up More Slop

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/sora-2-serves-up-more-slop/

Published: October 10, 2025 15:54

By Decca Muldowney and Alex Hanna Are you bored of TikTok? Looking for something new? Well, OpenAI’s new Sora 2 video app is offering just that. Except instead of your friend’s funny video of their cute pet, you can watch AI slop offerings like Tupac…

If Your Favorite Company Jumped for AI, Would You Jump Too?

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/if-your-favorite-company-jumped-for-ai-would-you/

Published: September 26, 2025 13:11

by Alex Hanna and Decca Muldowney In an analysis* of corporate filings and executive transcripts at S&P 500 Companies, the Financial Times discovered what many of us had already guessed: companies are pursuing “AI” because everyone else is doing it, not…

Meta to Mine Media for More “AI” Training Data

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/meta-to-mine-media-for-more-ai-training-data/

Published: September 19, 2025 20:51

By: Decca Muldowney and Emily M. Bender We read this week in the Wall Street Journal that Meta is on the prowl for more content to train its ever-hungry AI tools and chatbot. Their most recent targets are media companies Axel Springer, News Corp and Fox…

Back to School is Better Without "AI"

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/back-to-school-is-better-without-ai/

Published: September 9, 2025 15:52

It’s that time of year again, when fall is in the air and “AI” is back and worse than ever, creepy-crawling into every corner of our education system. Use “AI”, or flunk out? This semester, Ohio State University announced that every single one of its…

AI Doomerist Fandoms and Why We Call it Fan Fiction

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/ai-doomerist-fandoms-and-why-we-call-it-fan/

Published: September 5, 2025 13:00

By Emily We've taken a part a few AI doomer artifacts on the podcast, including most recently the "AI 2027" web page in Episode 56 but also a Google DeepMind paper-shaped object about "dangerous capabilities" in Episode 36 (with guest host Ali Alkhatib).…

Are We Supposed to Celebrate Lethal Technology?

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/are-we-supposed-to-celebrate-lethal-technology/

Published: September 2, 2025 20:21

By: Decca Muldowney and Emily M. Bender  [This post contains discussion of suicide and eating disorders. Please take care. See the end of the newsletter for resources.] Another preventable loss of life? We all read the New York Times piece last week about…

“AI” skepticism went mainstream this week

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/ai-skepticism-went-mainstream-this-week/

Published: August 22, 2025 21:27

After years of non-stop hype and bloviation, a flood of recent news stories suggest the tide may be turning on “AI”. Headlines this week announced AI is a “mass delusion event,” “a big nothing,” and even warned readers to “get ready for the crash.” A…