🦜 Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000
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<div>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.</div>
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Why "AI" Is a Con: Our Book Launch! (fear. Vauhini Vara)
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/17459349-why-ai-is-a-con-our-book-launch-fear-vauhini-vara.mp3
Published: July 7, 2025 10:00
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…
"Like Magic Intelligence in the Cloud", 2025.05.26
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/17341004-like-magic-intelligence-in-the-cloud-2025-05-26.mp3
Published: June 20, 2025 01:00
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.…
The "AI"-Enabled Immigration Panopticon (with Petra Molnar), 2025.05.05
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/17236295-the-ai-enabled-immigration-panopticon-with-petra-molnar-2025-05-05.mp3
Published: May 28, 2025 10:00
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…
AGI: "Imminent", "Inevitable", and Inane, 2025.04.21
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/17153034-agi-imminent-inevitable-and-inane-2025-04-21.mp3
Published: May 14, 2025 10:00
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 2027Fresh AI…
AI Hell in a Handbasket, 2025.04.14
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/17065555-ai-hell-in-a-handbasket-2025-04-14.mp3
Published: April 30, 2025 10:00
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…
"AI" Agents, A Single Point of Failure (with Margaret Mitchell), 2025.03.31
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/16990314-ai-agents-a-single-point-of-failure-with-margaret-mitchell-2025-03-31.mp3
Published: April 17, 2025 10:00
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…
Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday), 2025.03.17
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/16894001-linguists-versus-ai-speech-analysis-with-nicole-holliday-2025-03-17.mp3
Published: April 2, 2025 10:00
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…
The Anti-Bookclub Tackles 'Superagency', 2025.03.03
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/16819394-the-anti-bookclub-tackles-superagency-2025-03-03.mp3
Published: March 19, 2025 10:00
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…
The War on Knowledge (with Raina Bloom), 2025.02.24
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/16735740-the-war-on-knowledge-with-raina-bloom-2025-02-24.mp3
Published: March 5, 2025 14:00
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…
Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara Kneese), 2025.01.27
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/16646605-petro-masculinity-versus-the-planet-with-tamara-kneese-2025-01-27.mp3
Published: February 19, 2025 14:00
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…