Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| My Tech Workers Have Unionized, 2026.10.05 | 14 oct. 2026 | 00:53:37 | |
Across the tech industry, workers are fed up with endless layoff cycles, overwork, and "AI" tools being forced into their jobs. And their bosses hate to hear it! Emily and Alex are joined by JS Tan and Clarissa Redwine, the authors of Against Tech Oligarchy, to discuss the ways workplace organizing is evolving to meet this moment. JS Tan is getting his PhD at MIT and formerly worked in tech, where he spent years organizing across the industry. Clarissa Redwine helped organize the Kickstarter union, and cofounded and runs the annual tech organizing conference Circuit Breakers. Their book, Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World’s Most Powerful Industry, is available now! References:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Big Tech Colon-AI-lism, 2026.09.15 | 30 sept. 2026 | 00:55:02 | |
This week, Alex and Emily are joined by Keoni Mahelona of Te Hiku Media to discuss Indigenous language technology. They discuss problems that arise when Big Tech tries to bring its "solutions" into this space, and best practices for research and development that center the expertise, cultural norms and goals of Indigenous communities. Keoni Mahelona is the CTO of Te Hiku Media and a Native Hawaiian from the island of Kaua'i. He's a driving force behind the development of sovereign digital technologies that aim to protect and promote Indigenous languages, knowledge, culture, and now democracy. References:
Also referenced: Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Manifesting the End of Tech Bro Manifestos, 2026.09.08 | 17 sept. 2026 | 00:56:39 | |
Last month, Sam Altman proclaimed that we're already in "the Singularity." Not to be outdone, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have both recently come out with lengthy blog posts about "superhuman AI." Emily and Alex brave some truly terrible writing to unearth the core motivations at the heart of these screeds. References:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Working 9 to Hype, 2026.08.10 | 02 sept. 2026 | 00:54:23 | |
In the past year, tech companies have laid off thousands of employees. But when CEOs blame "AI innovation," they're redirecting attention from something much more predictable: job discrimination and gig-ification. Emily and Alex examine some narratives of AI-streamlined workplaces — and why they don't match up with reality. References:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Rumors of a Singularity Have Been Grossly Exaggerated, 2026.08.03 | 19 août 2026 | 00:54:32 | |
In the wake of OpenAI's announcement that its products caused a "cyber incident," Sam Altman is now claiming that we're already in the Singularity. And some media outlets are only too happy to help him advance that narrative! Alex and Emily tear up the AI boosters' latest claims of mathy maths combusting into consciousness. References:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Who's Responsible for "Responsible AI"?, 2026.07.06 | 04 août 2026 | 00:58:53 | |
Lately, a new framework has been creeping into AI boosterism: "harm reduction," or "responsible use." Education technology scholar dr. sava saheli singh joins Alex and Emily to unpack narratives around automation inevitability in the classroom. Spoiler alert: they're not actually "reducing harm" to students at all! An interdisciplinary scholar and filmmaker, sava is currently working on a research project examining secondary school teachers’ experiences of genAI use, and making a film about the future of AI in education. Her speculative short film series on the harms of surveillance technology is available at screeningsurveillance.com. References:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| State of Emergency, 2026.06.29 | 23 juil. 2026 | 00:55:39 | |
AI boosters want to hand off emergency services to the bullshit generators. And horrifyingly, some medical professionals want to help them! Join Emily and Alex for a deep dive on the latest automated horrors threatening our collective health and safety. References:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| When the Bubble Bursts (with Matt Scherer), 2026.06.01 | 07 juil. 2026 | 00:53:13 | |
What should we do when the "AI" bubble pops? Emily and Alex are joined by researcher Matt Scherer, who recently published a report called "No Bailout for Big Tech Billionaires: Policies for when the AI bubble bursts." They unpack what the boosters are saying about their finances, and how we can all push back against arguments for a government bailout. Matt Scherer is a fellow at the anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute. He previously led the workers' rights project at the Center for Democracy & Technology. References:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Beware the 20x Engineer, 2026.05.11 | 24 juin 2026 | 00:53:14 | |
"Sure, LLMs are bad at some things, but you can't deny that they're useful for programming!" Sound familiar? In this week's episode, Emily and Alex break down the key myths around AI-boosted productivity in tech. Plus, Alex previews her work with DAIR's newly launched Luddite Lab, where workers are organizing against automation. References:
Previous MAIHT3k episodes referenced:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Bernie Goes Down the X-Risk Rabbithole (with Dr. Nathalie Maréchal), 2026.05.04 | 09 juin 2026 | 01:03:54 | |
Senator Bernie Sanders recently hosted a panel on "The Existential Threat of AI," featuring Future of Life Institute co-founder Max Tegmark and other x-riskers. Dr. Nathalie Maréchal joins Emily and Alex to unpack this latest stop on Bernie's descent into doomerism. We return to the MST3k model with a rare video artifact! Nathalie Maréchal is a writer, researcher and advocate fighting for democracy and human rights in the age of technofascism. Her latest article, "Tech Policy Is on the Front Line of Fascism vs. Democracy. Pick a Side," is available in Tech Policy Press. She is currently the managing policy director at Northeastern University’s Institute for Information, the Internet, and Democracy. References: Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| LIVE: Anthropic Imagines a Very Special Boy, 2026.04.30 | 26 mai 2026 | 01:01:22 | |
Last month, we recorded our very first in-person podcast, live from Brooklyn! Alex and Emily debunk an especially soulless hype artifact about Anthropic's absurd claims of "moral education" for chatbots. Tune in to hear our rendition of "There Was A Society That Swallowed AI," plus other fun surprises! References: Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Hotter Than (AI) Hell, 2026.04.20 | 13 mai 2026 | 00:55:37 | |
The weather’s getting warmer, so what better time to take a trip to the hottest place in the universe — Fresh AI Hell! Emily and Alex take a spin through more than 30 hype artifacts, with topics including medicine, data centers, and fake people. Fresh AI Hell regions visited:
See the show notes on Peertube for a full list of artifacts referenced. Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| There's No Ghost in the Machine (with Carmen Maria Machado), 2026.04.13 | 28 avr. 2026 | 00:53:37 | |
Why are some writers and publishers so excited to automate their work? Author Carmen Maria Machado joins Alex and Emily to unpack what writers are missing when they hand off their work to chatbots, and the underlying issues this reveals in the publishing industry. Plus, we resolve to keep fan fiction a human endeavor! Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Uber for Military Surveillance (with Niamh McIntyre), 2026.03.30 | 16 avr. 2026 | 00:53:44 | |
The people who make automated translation possible are often low-paid gig workers. Usually, they don't even know who they're really working for — and it might be the US military. Reporter Niamh McIntyre joins Alex and Emily to dissect how one data labeling company presents its work, based her investigation into the experiences of East African employees. Niamh McIntyre is a senior reporter at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) in London, covering AI, labor, and surveillance tech. She was 2023 AI Accountability Fellow at the Pulitzer Center, and prior to joining TBIJ, spent four years as a data journalist at The Guardian. Find tickets to our April 30th live show here! References: Also referenced:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Data Centers Go Nuclear (with Maia Woluchem and Dr. Livia Garofalo), 2026.03.09 | 31 mars 2026 | 00:57:12 | |
We knew that the energy demands of data centers were preventing dirty energy sources from being sunsetted. Now hyperscalers are reaching even further, resurrecting Pennsylvania's infamous Three Mile Island. Emily and Alex are joined by Maia Woluchem and Dr. Livia Garofalo, who have researched the impacts of data center construction across PA. Maia Woluchem and Livia Garofalo are with the Trustworthy Infrastructures program at Data & Society. Their latest article, "Pennsylvania is perfect," is part of the New Internationalist's AI–themed issue. References:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Data Centers in Space!? (with Dr. Adam Becker), 2026.03.02 | 17 mars 2026 | 00:53:38 | |
Data centers are overburdening the planet, so tech billionaires have a new scheme — put 'em in space! Astrophysicist Dr. Adam Becker joins Alex and Emily to launch this plan into the sun. We unpack all the reasons that this hilariously terrible idea will never be viable outside of sci-fi-villain fantasies. Dr. Adam Becker is the author of More Everything Forever, a book about the terrible plans that tech billionaires have for the future and why they don’t work. Keep an eye out for his new podcast, Dreaming Against the Machine, which is launching soon. References:
Also referenced: Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| How the War Department Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI (with Naomi Klein), 2026.02.09 | 26 févr. 2026 | 00:52:02 | |
AI boosters and the US military are engaged in a lethal love affair. Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein joins Emily and Alex to discuss how glitchy technology supports global imperialism — and vice versa. Plus, we explore which Dr. Strangelove characters are currently running the US war machine. Naomi Klein is a columnist for The Guardian and the international bestselling author of nine books published in over 35 languages. Her new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World, written with Astra Taylor, will be published in September 2026.
Previous episodes referenced:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| A Bad Case of Hype-itis, 2026.02.02 | 12 févr. 2026 | 00:56:20 | |
Move over Dr. Google, Dr. ChatGPT is here, and it's even worse as a medical intervention! Alex and Emily scrub in to slice up some harmful new nonsense in the world of "AI" for medicine. What's the cure for an expensive and inaccessible health care system? One thing's for sure — it's not AI hype. Also referenced:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Hell All the Way Down, 2022–2025 | 30 janv. 2026 | 00:40:34 | |
This is a special episode, and it’s not like our usual livestream recordings. Instead, our producer Ozzy dug through the Fresh AI Hell archives to create a supercut of Alex's improvised transitions. She's made up dozens of skits and songs about the demons of AI Hell, based on weekly prompts from Emily and listeners. Finally, hear all the lore together in one place! Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Wrapping Up a Hellish 2025, 2025.12.15 | 13 janv. 2026 | 00:58:29 | |
For our last recording of 2025, Emily and Alex take on a TIME article naming the "architects of AI" as their person of the year. We also look back at the year in AI nonsense, and share findings from our Fresh AI Hell Wrapped. Happy Hype-y New Year! References: Also referenced: Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Defining AGI: Oops! All Eugenics, 2025.12.08 | 30 déc. 2025 | 00:55:01 | |
There's a new definition of artificial general intelligence in town, and unsurprisingly... it's bad! Alex and Emily rip up the tissue-paper-thin premises behind this latest attempt to define "intelligence." Plus, we discover that AI hypers love using logos that look like buttholes. References:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| This is What Algo-cracy Looks Like, 2025.12.01 | 16 déc. 2025 | 00:59:14 | |
Tech leaders are pushing the idea that automation can strengthen democracy — but as usual, their bold suggestions are based on castles made of sand. Alex and Emily tear down some flimsy arguments for AI governance, exposing their incorrect assumptions about the democratic process. References: Also referenced: Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| You Talked to Workers for This Labor Research... Right? (with Sophie Song), 2025.11.17 | 02 déc. 2025 | 00:53:14 | |
Last month, Senate Democrats warned that "Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade." Ironically, they used ChatGPT to come to that conclusion. DAIR Research Associate Sophie Song joins us to unpack the issues when self-professed worker advocates use chatbots for "research." Sophie Song is a researcher, organizer, and advocate working at the intersection of tech and social justice. They’re a research associate at DAIR, where they're working with Alex on building the Luddite Lab Resource Hub. References:
Also referenced:
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Drag It All To Hell, 2025.10.27 | 18 nov. 2025 | 00:56:44 | |
It's been six months since our last all-Hell episode! In honor of Halloween season, we take a long journey into the very scary Fresh AI Hell mines. Topics include terrifying uses of AI in education, scientific research, and politics — plus, some delicious palate cleansers along the way. AI bubble: bigger than dot-com bust? No one wants to pay for ChatGPT Meta lays off 600 from AI unit AI data centers: an even bigger disaster than we thought Public universities anticipate data center-driven power outages Chaser: Deloitte has to pay back Albanese government after using AI in report "AI" schools are "dead classrooms" Fake sources in "ethical AI" education report Parents letting kids play with AI Startup sells 'synthetic influencers' AI-powered textbooks fail to make the grade Chaser: "High-reliability" AI slop Nature offers "AI-powered research assistant" AI bots wrote all papers at this conference AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and POC Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT Chaser: Microsoft blocks Israel's use of its technology German initiative uses "AI" for voter education Police gunshot detection mics will listen for human voices SF's AI chatbot for RV dwellers Cuomo campaign posts racist AI slop DHS Ordered OpenAI To Share User Data Chaser: LA County moves to limit license plate tracking "AI Superintelligence" prohibition letter Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery Chaser: The hot new trend in marketing: hating on AI Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Crunching the Numbers (with Decca Muldowney), 2025.10.20 | 30 oct. 2025 | 00:56:20 | |
So-called AI tools are increasingly infiltrating newsrooms, particularly when it comes to data analysis. DAIR writer-in-residence Decca Muldowney joins us to discuss the need for journalists to distinguish between "AI" and reliable, verifiable research methods. Decca Muldowney is a journalist and writer who was our fact checker for The AI Con. She's also a writer-in-residence and web editor at the Distributed AI Research Institute.
Fresh AI Hell:
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Building Worlds Through Better Reading (with Reo Eveleth), 2025.09.29 | 14 oct. 2025 | 00:56:59 | |
Powerful AI boosters claim to love science fiction novels, but why do they always seem to take the wrong lessons from them? Reporter and writer Reo Eveleth joins us to discuss the ways tech leaders misuse storytelling, and how we can avoid their visions to imagine better futures.
Also Referenced: Fresh AI Hell:
Correction: We misstated Lee Ostertag's name during the livestream for this episode. We apologize for the error! Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Three Years of Ridicule as Praxis, 2025.09.19 | 01 oct. 2025 | 00:55:42 | |
It's Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000's third birthday! To celebrate, Emily and Alex respond to listener questions about the show, and reflect on the past and future of AI hype. Topics range from how to talk to your kids about LLMs, to what the MAIHT3k birthday cake looks like. Artifacts referenced: AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark Alex and Emily’s media appearances about The AI Con Emily and Alex on The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan Emily’s interview with Dr. Carl Rhodes Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire October 21st event for The AI Con FAccT AI Workers’ Inquiry Panel Emily’s presentation at UNESCO Digital Learning Week — Paper version on pp.41-45 here A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In. Fresh AI Hell: Meet the Robot Using AI to Ink Your Next Tattoo Medicare Will Start Paying AI Companies a Share of Any Claims They Automatically Reject Can AI doulas improve maternal health? Countries are struggling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers Bluesky post about Business Insider OpenAI has reportedly misjudged its cash burn by $80 billion Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie Harrison Dupré), 2025.08.18 | 11 sept. 2025 | 00:55:07 | |
Talking to chatbots can have serious mental health consequences — fueling delusions and leading users away from consensus reality. Futurism writer Maggie Harrison Dupré joins us to unpack the hype around AI therapists, based on her groundbreaking reporting on "AI psychosis." Maggie Harrison Dupré is an award-winning tech journalist at Futurism who’s reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping media, information, humans, and our real and digital lives. References: How AI Is Expanding The Mental Health Market He Had Dangerous Delusions. ChatGPT Admitted It Made Them Worse. OpenAI: What we're optimizing ChatGPT for Also referenced: Gov Pritzker Signs Legislation Prohibiting AI Therapy in Illinois People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions Stanford: New study warns of risks in AI mental health tools Fresh AI Hell: Bluesky post about DEI by chatbot How AI is being used by police departments to help draft reports UK Asks People to Delete Emails In Order to Save Water During Drought Sam Altman says 'yes,' AI is in a bubble Google's AI pointed him to a customer service number. It was a scam. Mastodon post about Dieter Roth's Literaturwürste Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and Kate Brennan), 2025.08.04 | 26 août 2025 | 00:57:51 | |
Trump’s “AI Action Plan” is his latest attempt to turn AI hype into official national policy. Kate Brennan and Sarah Myers West, of the AI Now Institute, join us to dig through this pile of deregulatory gifts to Big Tech. Dr. Sarah Myers West is co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, and a former senior advisor on AI for the FTC. Dr. Kate Brennan is associate director of the AI Now Institute, where she spearheads their policy work, informed by a doctorate in law and years of experience in the tech industry. References: Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan Also referenced: Fresh AI Hell: Medical Pros Risk Malpractice Suits by Avoiding AI Innovation AI Is Coming for the Consultants. Inside McKinsey, ‘This Is Existential.’ The rise of AI tools that write about you when you die Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox), 2025.07.21 | 13 août 2025 | 00:59:00 | |
After many months of making fun of the term "vibe coding," Emily and Alex tackle the LLMs-as-coders fad head-on, with help from security researcher Susanna Cox. From one person's screed that proclaims everyone not on the vibe-coding bandwagon to be crazy, to the grandiose claim that LLMs could be the "opposable thumb" of the entire world of computing. It's big yikes, all around. Susanna Cox is a consulting AI security researcher and a member of the core author team at OWASP AI Exchange. References: My AI Skeptic Friends Are All Nuts LLMs: the opposable thumb of computing A disastrous day in the life of a vibe coder Also referenced: Signal president Meredith Whittaker on the fundamental security problem with agentic AI The "S" in MCP stands for security Our Opinions Are Correct: The Turing Test is Bullshit AI Hell: Sam Altman: The (gentle) singularity is already here What do the boosters think reading is, anyway? Meta's climate model made up fake CO2 removal ideas Ongoing lawsuit means all your ChatGPT conversations will be saved "Dance like you're part of the training set" Some Guy tries to mansplain Signal to…Signal's president WSJ headline claims ChatGPT "self-reflection", gets dunked Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Et Tu, American Federation of Teachers? (with Charles Logan), 2025.07.14 | 30 juil. 2025 | 01:00:58 | |
The chatbot boosters are looking for educators to play brand ambassador for more intrusion of so-called "AI" into the classroom. From the American Federation of Teachers' new partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft for a "national academy for AI instruction" to yet more articles extolling the alleged time-saving and future-proofing virtues of LLM-powered ed tech, the hype can feel relentless. Charles Logan joins Alex and Emily for a critical look at the latest propaganda for "AI" in the classroom. Charles Logan is a former English teacher and current PhD candidate in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University. References: Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT. AI isn’t replacing student writing – but it is reshaping it Also referenced: Tressie McMillan Cottom on "predatory inclusion" Daniel Greene's "The Access Doctrine" The Group Chats that Changed America Fresh AI Hell: Missouri AG investigating why chatbots don’t like Trump Gig workers calling ICE on other undocumented gig workers Tech billionaire Trump adviser Marc Andreessen says universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI USF makes a PTSD detector...trained on children People falling in love with Replika chatbots Elon Musk thirsting over xAI anime construct Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Why "AI" Is a Con: Our Book Launch! (with Vauhini Vara), 2025.05.08 | 07 juil. 2025 | 01:16:52 | |
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 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 The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| "Like Magic Intelligence in the Cloud", 2025.05.26 | 20 juin 2025 | 00:59:50 | |
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 ***** 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 Music: Toby Menon. Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| The "AI"-Enabled Immigration Panopticon (with Petra Molnar), 2025.05.05 | 28 mai 2025 | 01:01:58 | |
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 on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| AGI: "Imminent", "Inevitable", and Inane, 2025.04.21 | 14 mai 2025 | 01:05:02 | |
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: 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 on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| AI Hell in a Handbasket, 2025.04.14 | 30 avr. 2025 | 01:00:25 | |
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 than usual to accompany this round of catharsis. AI Hell: LLM processing like human language processing (not) 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 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"
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 "I was not informed that Microsoft would sell my work to the Israeli military and government" Pulling 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 on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| "AI" Agents, A Single Point of Failure (with Margaret Mitchell), 2025.03.31 | 17 avr. 2025 | 01:03:02 | |
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 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? Fresh AI Hell: DOGE suggests replacing workers with "AI" (of course) Vape, or the tamagotchi gets it "AI" for psychotherapy, still bad, still hyped
Palate cleanser: "AI is the letdown" Comic relief: "Fortified with AI" Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday), 2025.03.17 | 02 avr. 2025 | 01:00:28 | |
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 Zoom rebrands existing and introduces new generative AI features Speech 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 on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| The Anti-Bookclub Tackles 'Superagency', 2025.03.03 | 19 mars 2025 | 01:00:00 | |
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 ridicule as praxis. Plus, why even this tortuous read offers a bit of comfort about the desperate state of the AI boosters. References: 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 CalState faculty union opposes AI initiative Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| The War on Knowledge (with Raina Bloom), 2025.02.24 | 05 mars 2025 | 01:00:23 | |
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 unelected South African tech billionaire continues to run previously secure government data through highly questionable LLMs, academic librarian Raina Bloom joins Emily and Alex for a talk about how we organize knowledge, and what happens when generative AI degrades or poison the systems that keep us all accurately -- and contextually -- informed. Raina Bloom is the Reference Services Coordinator for University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. References: OpenAI tries to 'uncensor' ChatGPT Elon Musk's DOGE is feeding sensitive federal data into AI to target cuts Guardian Media Group announces strategic partnership with OpenAI Elon Musk's AI-fuelled war on human agency (Post now deleted) A DOGE intern asks Reddit for help with file conversion When is it safe to use ChatGPT in higher education? Raina recommends the table on page 6 of UNESCO's QuickStart guide. Fresh AI Hell: Irish educational body, while acknowledging genAI's problems, still gives LLMs too much credit Attorneys still falling for "AI" search The latest in uncanny valley body horror robotics Google claims to have developed AI "co-scientist" Is AI 'reasoning' or 'pretending'? It's a false choice. Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara Kneese), 2025.01.27 | 19 févr. 2025 | 00:46:34 | |
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 on Silicon Valley's various unhinged, technosolutionist ideas about energy and the environment. Dr. Tamara Kneese is director of climate, technology and justice at the Data & Society Research Institute Due to some technical issues during our recording, this week's episode is a bit shorter than usual. References: Sam Altman is banking on fusion “Regenerative finance” in the crypto era Fears of subprime carbon assets stall crypto mission to save rainforest Corporate carbon offset company accidentally starts devastating wildfire The AI/crypto crossoverAI/crypto crossover no one asked for Blockchains wanted to build a smart city. The state could not sign off on its water rights Predatory delay and other myths of sustainable AI Book: Digital Energetics, on Bitcoin/AI computing as a larger energy problem Fresh AI Hell: Fake books about indigenous languages Surveillance company harrasses own employees with cameras Schools SWATing kids based on AI outputs LeCun says libraries etc owe him their data AGI is when OpenAI makes $100 billion in profits Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| The UK's Misplaced Enthusiasm (with Gina Neff), 2025.01.20 | 05 févr. 2025 | 01:02:12 | |
In January, the United Kingdom's new Labour Party prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced a new initiative to go all in on AI in the hopes of big economic returns, with a promise to “mainline” it into the country’s veins: everything from offering public data to private companies, to potentially fast-tracking miniature nuclear power plants to supply energy to data centers. UK-based researcher Gina Neff helps explain why this flashy policy proposal is mostly a blank check for big tech, and has little to offer either the economy or working people. Gina Neff is executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, and a professor of responsible AI at Queen Mary University of London. References: The AI Opportunities Action Plan ‘Mainlined into UK’s veins’: Labour announces huge public rollout of AI Gina Neff: Can democracy survive AI? Labour's AI Action Plan - a gift to the far right Fresh AI Hell: "AI" tool for predicting how Parliament will react to policy proposals "AI" detects age based on hand movements Apple Intelligence misleading summaries of news Book simplification as a service CEO doesn't understand why kid turned AI features of toy off Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Sam Altman's Fever Dream, 2025.01.13 | 22 janv. 2025 | 01:02:19 | |
Not only is OpenAI's new o3 model allegedly breaking records for how close an LLM can get to the mythical "human-like thinking" of AGI, but Sam Altman has some, uh, reflections for us as he marks two years since the official launch of ChatGPT. Emily and Alex kick off the new year unraveling these truly fantastical stories. References: OpenAI o3 Breakthrough High Score on ARC-AGI-Pub From the blog of Sam Altman: Reflections The brain is a computer is a brain "Time to Edit" as a metric predicting the singularity (Contributed by Warai Otoko) Seattle Public Schools calls ChatGPT a "transformative technology" A GitHub pull request closed because change would have been unfriendly to "AI" chat interface Elsevier rewrites papers with "AI" without telling authors, editors The UK: mainlining AI straight into their veins Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Episode 47: Hell is Other People's AI Hype, December 9 2024 | 30 déc. 2024 | 01:00:47 | |
It’s been a long year in the AI hype mines. And no matter how many claims Emily and Alex debunk, there's always a backlog of Fresh AI Hell. This week, another whirlwind attempt to clear it, with plenty of palate cleansers along the way. Chaser: ShotSpotter as art Part IV: Surveillance, AI in science/medicine Part V: They tell us to believe the hype Thomas Friedman: AGI is coming Chaser: Emily and Alex's forthcoming book! Pre-order THE AI CON: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want at TheCon.AI. Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Episode 46: AGI Funny Business (Model), with Brian Merchant, December 2 2024 | 18 déc. 2024 | 01:02:35 | |
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 like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and company were luring investor dollars to their newly-formed venture solely on the hand-wavy promise that someday, LLMs themselves would figure out how to turn a profit. Brian Merchant is an author, journalist in residence at the AI Now Institute, and co-host of the tech news podcast System Crash. References: Elon Musk and partners form nonprofit to stop AI from ruining the world How Elon Musk and Y Combinator Plan to Stop Computers From Taking Over Elon Musk's Billion-Dollar AI Plan Is About Far More Than Saving the World Brian’s recent report on the business model of AGI, for the AI Now Institute: AI Generated Business: The rise of AGI and the rush to find a working revenue model Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 21: The True Meaning of 'Open Source' (feat. Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld) Fresh AI Hell: OpenAI explores advertising as it steps up revenue drive If an AI company ran Campbell's Soup with the same practices they use to handle data Humans are the new 'luxury item' Itching to write a book? AI publisher Spines wants to make a deal A company pitched Emily her own 'verified avatar' Don't upload your medical images to chatbots A look at a pilot program in Georgia that uses 'jailbots' to track inmates Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Episode 45: Billionaires, Influencers, and Ed Tech (feat. Adrienne Williams), November 18 2024 | 26 nov. 2024 | 01:00:33 | |
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, this hype is just another round of Silicon Valley pointing to real problems -- under-supported school systems -- but then directing attention and resources to their favorite toys. Former educator and DAIR research fellow Adrienne Williams joins to explain the problems this tech-solutionist redirection fails to solve, and the new ones it creates. Adrienne Williams started organizing in 2018 while working as a junior high teacher for a tech owned charter school. She expanded her organizing in 2020 after her work as an Amazon delivery driver, where many of the same issues she saw in charter schools were also in evidence. Adrienne is a Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest with The OpEd Project in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, as well as a Research Fellow at both (DAIR) and Just Tech. References: Funding Helps Teachers Build AI Tools Sal Khan's 2023 Ted Talk: AI in the classroom can transform education Bill Gates: My trip to the frontier of AI education
Book: Access is Capture: How Edtech Reproduces Racial Inequality Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 26, Universities Anxiously Buy Into the Hype (feat. Chris Gilliard) Fresh AI Hell: Google, Microsoft and Perplexity are promoting scientific racism in 'AI overviews' 'Whisper' medical transcription tool used in hospitals is making things up X's AI bot can't tell the difference between a bad game and vandalism Prompting is not a substitute for probability measurements in large language models Self-driving wheelchairs at Seattle-Tacoma International Airpot Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Episode 44: OpenAI's Ridiculous 'Reasoning', October 28 2024 | 13 nov. 2024 | 01:00:11 | |
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 new regulation against data-scraping worker surveillance. References: OpenAI: Learning to reason with LLMs Fresh AI Hell: MIT Technology Review's AI 'AI hype index' CFPB Takes Action to Curb Unchecked Worker Surveillance Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Episode 43: AI Companies Gamble with Everyone's Planet (feat. Paris Marx), October 21 2024 | 31 oct. 2024 | 01:01:22 | |
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 hand-wavy assurances of CEOs that 'AI will fix global warming' are just magical thinking, ignoring a genuine climate cost and imperiling the clean energy transition in the US. Paris Marx is a tech journalist and host of the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us. He also recently launched a 4-part series, Data Vampires, (which features Alex) about the promises and pitfalls of data centers like the ones AI boosters rely on. References: Eric Schmidt says AI more important than climate goals Microsoft's sustainability report Sam Altman's “The Intelligence Age” promises AI will fix the climate crisis Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 19: The Murky Climate and Environmental Impact of Large Language Models, November 6 2023 Fresh AI Hell: Rosetta to linguists: "Embrace AI or risk extinction" of endangered languages A talking collar that you can use to pretend to talk with your pets Google offers synthetic podcasts through NotebookLM An AI 'artist' claims he's losing millions of dolalrs from people stealing his work University hiring English professor to teach...prompt engineering Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Episode 42: Stop Trying to Make 'AI Scientist' Happen, September 30 2024 | 10 oct. 2024 | 00:59:54 | |
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 research papers. But people keep trying to make “AI Scientists” a thing. Just ask your chatbot for some research questions, or have it synthesize some human subjects to save you time on surveys. Alex and Emily explain why so-called “fully automated, open-ended scientific discovery” can’t live up to the grandiose promises of tech companies. Plus, an update on their forthcoming book! References: Sakana.AI keeps trying to make 'AI Scientist' happen Can LLMs Generate Novel Research Ideas? A Large-Scale Human Study with 100+ NLP Researchers How should the advent of large language models affect the practice of science? Relevant research ethics policies: ACL Policy on Publication Ethics Committee On Public Ethics (COPE) The Vancouver Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work Fresh AI Hell: Should journals allow LLMs as co-authors? Business Insider "asks ChatGPT" Otter.ai sends transcript of private after-meeting discussion to everyone AI generated crime scene footage "The first college of nursing to offer an MSN in AI" FTC cracks down on "AI" claims Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||
| Episode 41: Sweating into AI Fall, September 9 2024 | 26 sept. 2024 | 01:01:28 | |
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 continued hype in education and art. Fresh AI Hell: Synthetic data for Hollywood test screenings
AI assistant rickrolls customers Programming LLMs with "fiduciary duty" Canva increasing prices thank to "AI" features Clearview AI hit with largest GDPR fine yet 'AI detection' in schools harms neurodivergent kids CS prof admits unethical ChatGPT use College recruiter chatbot can't discuss politics "The AI-powered nonprofits reimagining education" Professors' 'AI twins' as teaching assistants LLMs still biased against African American English AI "enhances" photo of Black people into white-appearing Eric Schmidt: Go ahead, steal data with ChatGPT The environmental cost of Google's "AI Overviews" Jeff Bezos' "Grand Challenge" for AI in environment What I found in an AI-company's e-waste xAI accused of worsening smog with unauthorized gas turbines AI for "emotion recognition" of rail passengers Chatbot harassment scenario reveals real victim "AI" in a product description turns off consumers Is tripe kosher? It depends on the religion of the cow. Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily
Alex
Music by Toby Menon. | |||