@www.buzzsprout.com.2126417@rss-parrot.net
I'm an automated parrot! I relay a website's RSS feed to the Fediverse. Every time a new post appears in the feed, I toot about it. Follow me to get all new posts in your Mastodon timeline! Brought to you by the RSS Parrot.
---
<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>
Site URL: www.buzzsprout.com/2126417
Feed URL: feeds.buzzsprout.com/2126417.rss
Posts: 46
Followers: 1
Episode 46: AGI Funny Business (Model), with Brian Merchant, December 2 2024
Published: December 18, 2024 11:00
Once upon a time, artificial general intelligence was the only business plan OpenAI seemed to have. Tech journalist Brian Merchant joins Emily and Alex for a time warp to the beginning of the current wave of AI hype, nearly a decade ago. And it sure seemed…
Episode 45: Billionaires, Influencers, and Ed Tech (feat. Adrienne Williams), November 18 2024
Published: November 26, 2024 14:00
From Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, billionaires with no education expertise keep using their big names and big dollars to hype LLMs for classrooms. Promising ‘comprehensive AI tutors', or just ‘educator-informed’ tools to address understaffed classrooms,…
Episode 44: OpenAI's Ridiculous 'Reasoning', October 28 2024
Published: November 13, 2024 11:00
The company behind ChatGPT is back with bombastic claim that their new o1 model is capable of so-called "complex reasoning." Ever-faithful, Alex and Emily tear it apart. Plus the flaws in a tech publication's new 'AI hype index,' and some palette-cleansing…
Episode 43: AI Companies Gamble with Everyone's Planet (feat. Paris Marx), October 21 2024
Published: October 31, 2024 10:00
Technology journalist Paris Marx joins Alex and Emily for a conversation about the environmental harms of the giant data centers and other water- and energy-hungry infrastructure at the heart of LLMs and other generative tools like ChatGPT -- and why the…
Episode 42: Stop Trying to Make 'AI Scientist' Happen, September 30 2024
Published: October 10, 2024 10:00
Can “AI” do your science for you? Should it be your co-author? Or, as one company asks, boldly and breathlessly, “Can we automate the entire process of research itself?”Major scientific journals have banned the use of tools like ChatGPT in the writing of…
Episode 41: Sweating into AI Fall, September 9 2024
Published: September 26, 2024 10:00
Did your summer feel like an unending barrage of terrible ideas for how to use “AI”? You’re not alone. It's time for Emily and Alex to clear out the poison, purge some backlog, and take another journey through AI hell -- from surveillance of emotions, to…
Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 40: Elders Need Care, Not 'AI' Surveillance (feat. Clara Berridge), August 19 2024
Published: September 13, 2024 10:00
Dr. Clara Berridge joins Alex and Emily to talk about the many 'uses' for generative AI in elder care -- from "companionship," to "coaching" like medication reminders and other encouragements toward healthier (and, for insurers, cost-saving) behavior. But…
Episode 39: Newsrooms Pivot to Bullshit (feat. Sam Cole), Aug 5 2024
Published: August 29, 2024 10:00
The Washington Post is going all in on AI -- surely this won't be a repeat of any past, disastrous newsroom pivots! 404 Media journalist Samantha Cole joins to talk journalism, LLMs, and why synthetic text is the antithesis of good reporting.References:The…
Episode 38: Deflating Zoom's 'Digital Twin,' July 29 2024
Published: August 14, 2024 10:00
Could this meeting have been an e-mail that you didn't even have to read? Emily and Alex are tearing into the lofty ambitions of Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, who claims the future is a LLM-powered 'digital twin' that can attend meetings in your stead, make…
Episode 37: Chatbots Aren't Nurses (feat. Michelle Mahon), July 22 2024
Published: August 2, 2024 10:00
We regret to report that companies are still trying to make generative AI that can 'transform' healthcare -- but without investing in the wellbeing of healthcare workers or other aspects of actual patient care. Registered nurse and nursing care advocate…
Episode 36: About That 'Dangerous Capabilities' Fanfiction (feat. Ali Alkhatib), June 24 2024
Published: July 19, 2024 10:00
When is a research paper not a research paper? When a big tech company uses a preprint server as a means to dodge peer review -- in this case, of their wild speculations on the 'dangerous capabilities' of large language models. Ali Alkhatib joins Emily to…
Episode 35: AI Overviews and Google's AdTech Empire (feat. Safiya Noble), June 10 2024
Published: July 3, 2024 10:00
You've already heard about the rock-prescribing, glue pizza-suggesting hazards of Google's AI overviews. But the problems with the internet's most-used search engine go way back. UCLA scholar and "Algorithms of Oppression" author Safiya Noble joins Alex…
Episode 34: Senate Dot Roadmap Dot Final Dot No Really Dot Docx, June 3 2024
Published: June 20, 2024 10:00
The politicians are at it again: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's series of industry-centric forums last year have birthed a "roadmap" for future legislation. Emily and Alex take a deep dive on this report, and conclude that the time spent writing it…
Episode 33: Much Ado About 'AI' 'Deception', May 20 2024
Published: June 5, 2024 10:00
Will the LLMs somehow become so advanced that they learn to lie to us in order to achieve their own ends? It's the stuff of science fiction, and in science fiction these claims should remain. Emily and guest host Margaret Mitchell, machine learning…
Episode 32: A Flood of AI Hell, April 29 2024
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/15120816-episode-32-a-flood-of-ai-hell-april-29-2024.mp3
Published: May 23, 2024 10:00
AI Hell froze over this winter and now a flood of meltwater threatens to drown Alex and Emily. Armed with raincoats and a hastily-written sea shanty*, they tour the realms, from spills of synthetic information, to the special corner reserved for…
Episode 31: Science Is a Human Endeavor (feat. Molly Crockett and Lisa Messeri), April 15 2024
Published: May 7, 2024 10:00
Will AI someday do all our scientific research for us? Not likely. Drs. Molly Crockett and Lisa Messeri join for a takedown of the hype of "self-driving labs" and why such misrepresentations also harm the humans who are vital to scientific research.Dr.…
Episode 30: Marc's Miserable Manifesto, April 1 2024
Published: April 19, 2024 10:00
Dr. Timnit Gebru guest-hosts with Alex in a deep dive into Marc Andreessen's 2023 manifesto, which argues, loftily, in favor of maximizing the use of 'AI' in all possible spheres of life.Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed…
Episode 29: How LLMs Are Breaking the News (feat. Karen Hao), March 25 2024
Published: April 3, 2024 10:00
Award-winning AI journalist Karen Hao joins Alex and Emily to talk about why LLMs can't possibly replace the work of reporters -- and why the hype is damaging to already-struggling and necessary publications.References:Adweek: Google Is Paying Publishers…
Episode 28: LLMs Are Not Human Subjects, March 4 2024
Published: March 13, 2024 10:00
Alex and Emily put on their social scientist hats and take on the churn of research papers suggesting that LLMs could be used to replace human labor in social science research -- or even human subjects. Why these writings are essentially calls to fabricate…
Episode 27: Asimov's Laws vs. 'AI' Death-Making (w/ Annalee Newitz & Charlie Jane Anders), February 19 2024
Published: February 29, 2024 11:00
Science fiction authors and all-around tech thinkers Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders join this week to talk about Isaac Asimov's oft-cited and equally often misunderstood laws of robotics, as debuted in his short story collection, 'I, Robot.'…
Episode 26: Universities Anxiously Buy in to the Hype (feat. Chris Gilliard), February 5 2024
Published: February 15, 2024 11:00
Just Tech Fellow Dr. Chris Gilliard aka "Hypervisible" joins Emily and Alex to talk about the wave of universities adopting AI-driven educational technologies, and the lack of protections they offer students in terms of data privacy or even emotional…
Episode 25: An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your Job, January 22 2024
Published: February 1, 2024 11:00
Is ChatGPT really going to take your job? Emily and Alex unpack two hype-tastic papers that make implausible claims about the number of workforce tasks LLMs might make cheaper, faster or easier. And why bad methodology may still trick companies into trying…
Episode 24: AI Won't Solve Structural Inequality (feat. Kerry McInerney & Eleanor Drage), January 8 2024
Published: January 17, 2024 11:00
New year, same Bullshit Mountain. Alex and Emily are joined by feminist technosolutionism critics Eleanor Drage and Kerry McInerney to tear down the ways AI is proposed as a solution to structural inequality, including racism, ableism, and sexism -- and…
Episode 23: AI Hell Freezes Over, December 22 2023
Published: January 10, 2024 11:00
AI Hell has frozen over for a single hour. Alex and Emily visit all seven circles in a tour of the worst in bite-sized BS.References:Pentagon moving toward letting AI weapons autonomously kill humansNYC Mayor uses AI to make robocalls in languages he…
Episode 22: Congressional 'AI' Hearings Say More about Lawmakers (feat. Justin Hendrix), December 18 2023
Published: January 3, 2024 11:00
Congress spent 2023 busy with hearings to investigate the capabilities, risks and potential uses of large language models and other 'artificial intelligence' systems. Alex and Emily, plus journalist Justin Hendrix, talk about the limitations of these…
Episode 21: The True Meaning of 'Open Source' (feat. Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld), November 20 2023
Published: November 30, 2023 12:00
Researchers Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld join Alex and Emily to examine what software companies really mean when they say their work is 'open source,' and call for greater transparency.This episode was recorded on November 20, 2023.Dr. Sarah West is…
Episode 20: Let's Do the Time Warp! (to the "Founding" of "Artificial Intelligence"), November 6 2023
Published: November 21, 2023 13:00
Emily and Alex time travel back to a conference of men who gathered at Dartmouth College in the summer of 1956 to examine problems relating to computation and "thinking machines," an event commonly mythologized as the founding of the field of artificial…
Episode 19: The Murky Climate and Environmental Impact of Large Language Models, November 6 2023
Published: November 8, 2023 11:00
Drs. Emma Strubell and Sasha Luccioni join Emily and Alex for an environment-focused hour of AI hype. How much carbon does a single use of ChatGPT emit? What about the water or energy consumption of manufacturing the graphics processing units that train…
Episode 18: Rumors of Artificial General Intelligence Have Been Greatly Exaggerated, October 23 2023
Published: October 31, 2023 10:00
Emily and Alex read through Google vice president Blaise Aguera y Arcas' recent proclamation that "artificial general intelligence is already here." Why this claim is a maze of hype and moving goalposts.References:Noema Magazine: "Artificial General…
Episode 17: Back to School with AI Hype in Education (feat. Haley Lepp), September 22 2023
Published: October 4, 2023 10:00
Emily and Alex are joined by Stanford PhD student Haley Lepp to examine the increasing hype around LLMs in education spaces - whether they're pitched as ways to reduce teacher workloads, increase accessibility, or simply "democratize learning and knowing"…
Episode 16: Med-PaLM or Facepalm? A Second Opinion On LLMs In Healthcare (feat. Roxana Daneshjou), August 28, 2023
Published: September 28, 2023 10:00
Alex and Emily are taking another stab at Google and other companies' aspirations to be part of the healthcare system - this time with the expertise of Stanford incoming assistant professor of dermatology and biomedical data science Roxana Daneshjou. A…
Episode 15: The White House And Big Tech Dance The Self-Regulation Tango, August 11 2023
Published: September 20, 2023 10:00
Emily and Alex tackle the White House hype about the 'voluntary commitments' of companies to limit the harms of their large language models: but only some large language models, and only some, over-hyped kinds of harms.Plus a full portion of Fresh…
Episode 14: Henry Kissinger, Machines of War, and the Age of Military AI Hype (feat. Lucy Suchman), July 21 2023
Published: September 13, 2023 10:00
Emily and Alex are joined by technology scholar Dr. Lucy Suchman to scrutinize a new book from Henry Kissinger and coauthors Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher that declares a new 'Age of AI,' with abundant hype about the capacity of large language…
Episode 13: Beware The Robo-Therapist (feat. Hannah Zeavin), June 8 2023
Published: September 7, 2023 10:00
Emily and Alex talk to UC Berkeley scholar Hannah Zeavin about the case of the National Eating Disorders Association helpline, which tried to replace human volunteers with a chatbot--and why the datafication and automation of mental health services are an…
Episode 12: It's All Hell, May 5 2023
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/13474942-episode-12-it-s-all-hell-may-5-2023.mp3
Published: August 29, 2023 10:00
Take a deep breath and join Alex and Emily in AI Hell itself, as they take down a month's worth of hype in a mere 60 minutes.This episode aired on Friday, May 5, 2023.Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.References:Terrifying NEJM article on GPT-4…
Episode 11: A GPT-4 Fanfiction Novella, April 7 2023
Published: August 24, 2023 10:00
After a hype-y few weeks of AI happenings, Alex and Emily shovel the BS on GPT-4’s “system card,” its alleged “sparks of Artificial General Intelligence,” and a criti-hype heavy "AI pause" letter. Hint: for a good time, check the citations.This episode…
Episode 10: Don't Be A Lawyer, ChatGPT. March 3, 2023
Published: August 16, 2023 09:00
Alex and Emily are taking AI to court! Amid big claims about LLMs, a look at the facts about ChatGPT, legal expertise, and what the bar exam actually tells you about someone's ability to practice law--with help from Harvard legal and technology scholar…
Episode 9: Call the AI Quack Doctor, February 17, 2023
Published: August 8, 2023 09:00
Should the mathy-maths be telling doctors what might be wrong with you? And can they actually help train medical professionals to treat human patients? Alex and Emily discuss the not-so-real medical and healthcare applications of ChatGPT and other large…
Episode 8: The ChatGPT Awakens, January 20, 2023
Published: August 4, 2023 10:00
New year, new hype? As the world gets swept up in the fervor over ChatGPT of late 2022, Emily and Alex give a deep sigh and begin to unpack the wave of fresh enthusiasm over large language models and the "chat" format specifically.Plus, more fresh AI…
Episode 7: There Are Now 15 Competing Evaluation Metrics (ft. Dr. Jeremy Kahn). December 12, 2022
Published: July 26, 2023 10:00
Emily and Alex are joined by Dr. Jeremy G. Kahn to discuss the distressingly large number of evaluation metrics for artificial intelligence, and some new AI hell.Jeremy G. Kahn has a PhD in computational linguistics, with a focus on information-theoretic…
Episode 6: Stochastic Parrot Galactica, November 23, 2022
Published: July 17, 2023 15:00
Emily and Alex discuss MetaAI's bullshit science paper generator, Galactica, along with its defenders. Plus, where could AI actually help scientific research? And more Fresh AI Hell. Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube. References:Imre Lakatos on…
Episode 5: Sam Bankman-Fried's Future Fund, November 9 2022
Published: July 11, 2023 10:00
Emily and Alex discuss Sam Bankman-Fried's Future Fund, its essay contest, and the problems with using AI for prediction and resource allocation--mere days before the collapse of FTX. Also, we introduce our "What in the Fresh AI Hell?" segment!This episode…
Episode 4: Is AI Art Actually 'Art'? October 26, 2022
Published: July 2, 2023 17:00
AI is increasingly being used to make visual art. But when is an algorithmically-generated image art...and when is it just an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of pixels? Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna talk to a panel of artists and…
Episode 3: "Can Machines Learn To Behave?" Part 3, September 23, 2022
Published: June 19, 2023 19:00
Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna kick off the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series by reading through, "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Google VP who works on artificial intelligence.This episode was…
Episode 2: "Can Machines Learn To Behave?" Part 2, September 6, 2022
Published: June 19, 2023 15:00
Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna kick off the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series by reading through, "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Google VP who works on artificial intelligence.This episode was…
Episode 1: "Can Machines Learn To Behave?" Part 1, August 31, 2022
Published: May 31, 2023 17:00
Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna kick off the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series by reading through, "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Google VP who works on artificial intelligence.This episode was…