Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000
Artificial Intelligence has too much hype. In this stream, linguist Prof. Emily M. Bender and sociologist Dr. 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.
If you prefer this in podcast form or want to read the transcript, find Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 on Buzzsprout or wherever you get your podcasts. https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417
And if you can't wait for the next stream, Alex and Emily have plenty to say in their regular newsletter dispatches. Subscribe via Buttondown here.
Episode 45 - Billionaires, Influences, and Ed Tech
From Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, billionaires with no education expertise keep using their big names and big dollars to hype LLMs for classrooms. DAIR's Adrienne Williams, a former educator, helps pick apart the technosolutionist hype.
Episode 44 - OpenAI's Ridiculous 'Reasoning'
Emily and Alex pore over the hyped-up documentation about OpenAI's new o1 model and its so-called "complex chains of thought" -- and, why the benchmarks themselves are suspect.
Episode 43 - AI Companies Gamble with Everyone's Planet
'Tech Won't Save Us' host Paris Marx joins to help unpack the energy, water and climate cost of the massive data farms that process all those ChatGPT prompts, and how companies obfuscate the math with offset accounting.
Episode 42 - Stop Trying to Make 'AI Scientists' Happen
Can “AI” do your science for you? Should it be your co-author? We explain why so-called “fully automated, open-ended scientific discovery” can’t live up to the grandiose promises of tech companies.
Episode 41 - Sweating into AI Fall
Do you feel like this summer has brought just unending terrible ideas for how to use “AI”? You’re not alone! The time has come, yet again, for Emily and Alex to clear out the poison, purge some backlog, and take a journey through AI hell.
Episode 40 - Elders Need Care, Not 'AI' Surveillance
As countries see their populations age, tech CEOs are pitching AI "solutions" to the need for better care options. Researcher Clara Berridge explains how chatbots invade privacy, and fail to meet real needs.
Episode 39 - Newsrooms Pivot to Bullshit
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan envisions a future where your digital, LLM-powered 'twin' could take your place in meetings, reply to your emails, and...let you go to the beach. Alex and Emily are on the case.
Episode 38 - Zoom's 'Digital Twin'
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan envisions a future where your digital, LLM-powered 'twin' could take your place in meetings, reply to your emails, and...let you go to the beach. Alex and Emily are on the case.
Episode 37 - Chatbots Aren't Nurses
Why are AI companies pushing chatbots to replace the work of nurses? National Nurses United's Michelle Mahon explains how the hype undermines meaningful patient care.
Episode 36 - About That 'Dangerous Capabilities' Fanfiction
When is a research paper not a research paper? When it's an 80-page speculation on AI harms, minus context. Guest: Ali Alkhatib.
Episode 35 - AI Overviews and Google's AdTech Empire
A takedown of Google's already-panned AI Overviews and long history of degrading our access to information. Guest: Safiya Noble.
Episode 34 - Senate Dot Roadmap Dot Final Dot No Really Dot Docx
We dissect the Senate's AI Working Group report, which focuses on "innovation" and national security rather than privacy or ethics.
Episode 33 - Much Ado About 'AI' 'Deception'
Dr. Margaret Mitchell joins Emily to critique of fears that LLMs may some day intentionally lie to and manipulate human users.
Episode 32 - A Flood of AI Hell
Alex and Emily slog through the meltwaters of previously frozen AI Hell. And yeah, there's a special corner for ShotSpotter.
Episode 31 - Science Is a Human Endeavor
Drs. Molly Crockett and Lisa Messeri examine why AI can't do our scientific research for us.
Episode 30 - Marc's Miserable Manifesto
Timnit Gebru joins Alex to tear apart Marc Andreessen's lofty TESCREAL manifesto.
Episode 29 - How LLMs Are Breaking the News
AI journalist Karen Hao helps Alex and Emily look at how generative AI is poised to hollow out already-struggling media outlets.
Episode 28 - LLMs Are Not Human Subjects
We take on research papers claiming LLMs could be used to replace human labor and human subjects in social science research.
Episode 27 - Asimov's Laws vs. AI Death-Making (w/Annalee Newitz & Charlie Jane Anders)
We focus on the pitfalls of global and US military institutions attempting to build 'ethical' frameworks for autonomous weapons.
Episode 26 - Universities Anxiously Buy in to the Hype (feat. Chris Gilliard)
We review AI-driven educational technologies, and the lack of protections for terms of data privacy or emotional safety.
Episode 25 - An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your Job
Alex and Emily unpack implausible claims about the number of workforce tasks LLMs might make cheaper, faster or easier.
Episode 24 - AI Won't Solve Structural Inequality (Kerry McInerney & Eleanor Drage)
Feminist technosolutionism critics Eleanor Drage and Kerry McInerney tear down AI as a solution to structural inequality.
Episode 23 - AI Hell Freezes Over
Alex and Emily visit all seven circles of AI Hell in a whirlwind tour of the worst in bite-sized BS.
Episode 22 - Congressional 'AI' Hearings Say More about Lawmakers
Justin Hendrix joins to talk about the limitations of the hearings, and how legislation on data privacy could make a difference.
Episode 21 - The True Meaning of 'Open Source'
Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld join us to examine what software companies really mean when they say 'open source.'
Episode 20 - Let's Do the Time Warp! (to the "Founding" of "Artificial Intelligence")
Emily and Alex time travel back to an event commonly mythologized as the founding of the field of artificial intelligence.
Episode 19 - The Murky Climate and Environmental Impact of Large Language Models
Drs. Emma Strubell and Sasha Luccioni join Emily and Alex for an environment-focused hour of AI hype.
Episode 18 - Rumors of Artificial General Intelligence Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
Emily and Alex read through Google vice president Blaise Aguera y Arcas' recent proclamation that "artificial general intelligence is already here."
Episode 17 - Back to School with AI Hype in Education
Emily and Alex are joined by Stanford PhD student Haley Lepp to examine the increasing hype around LLMs in education spaces.
Episode 16 - Med-PaLM or Facepalm? A Second Opinion On LLMs In Healthcare
A look at the two-tiered system that might emerge if LLMs are brought into the diagnostic process, with biomedical data science Roxana Daneshjou.
Episode 15 - The White House and Big Tech Dance the Self-Regulation Tango
Emily and Alex tackle the White House hype about the 'voluntary commitments' of companies to limit the harms of their LLMs.
Episode 14 - Henry Kissinger, Machines of War, and the Age of Military AI Hype
Emily and Alex are joined by Dr. Lucy Suchman to scrutinize a new book from Henry Kissinger that declares a new 'Age of AI'
Episode 13 - Beware the Robo-Therapist
Emily and Alex talk to UC Berkeley scholar Hannah Zeavin about the datafication and automation of mental health services.
Episode 12 - It's All Hell
Take a deep breath and join Alex and Emily in hell itself, as they take down a month's worth of AI hype.
Episode 11 - A GPT-4 Fanfiction Novella
Alex and Emily shovel the BS on GPT-4’s “system card,” alleged “sparks of Artificial General Intelligence,” and an "AI pause" letter.
Episode 10 - Don't Be A Lawyer, ChatGPT
Alex and Emily are joined by law and technology scholar Kendra Albert for a conversation about ChatGPT.
Episode 9 - Call The AI Quack Doctor
Alex and Emily discuss the not-so-real medical and healthcare applications of ChatGPT and other large language models.
Episode 8 - The ChatGPT Awakens
Emily and Alex discuss ChatGPT and all the surrounding hype. Also, more fresh AI hell.
Episode 7 - There Are Now 15 Competing Evaluation Metrics
Emily and Alex are joined this week by Dr. Jeremy G. Kahn to discuss evaluation metrics and some new AI hell.
Episode 6 - Stochastic Parrot Galactica
Emily and Alex discuss MetaAI's bullshit science paper generator, Galactica, along with its defenders. Also, more fresh AI hell.
Episode 5 - Sam Bankman-Fried's Future Fund and Fresh AI Hell
Emily and Alex discuss Sam Bankman-Fried's Future Fund and their essay contest.
Episode 4 - Is AI Art Actually "Art"?
Emily and Alex are joined this week by Drs. Johnathan Flowers, Negar Rostamzedah, and Jennifer Lena to discuss the hype around AI Art.
Episode 3 - "Can machines learn how to behave?" (Part 3)
Emily and Alex finally finish their reading of "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas.
Episode 2 - "Can machines learn how to behave?" (Part 2)
Emily and Alex continue their reading of "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas.
Episode 1 - "Can machines learn how to behave?" (Part 1)
Emily and Alex read through "Can machines learn how to behave?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, a Google VP for AI.