Advertise on podcast: Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

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. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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: "The Architects of AI Are TIME's 2025 Person of the Year"Stanford AI Index ReportAlso referenced: Original "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photo"The Number of People Using AI at Work Is Suddenly Falling"Fresh AI Hell: Fresh AI Hell, WrappedAdobe for Education outputs sexualized images"'Low Tech ChatGPT' on physical paper""Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications that trained neural networks on 'bonkers' dataset"Hologram lecturers and robot sandwich-makers"'ChatGPT for Doctors' Startup Doubles Valuation to $12 Billion as Revenue Surges"No more ideas. Need AIdeas!"For the First Time, AI Analyzes Language as Well as a Human Expert""Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man’s Meta Smart Glasses on Subway"Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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: "A Definition of AGI" landing page and paper-shaped objectFresh AI Hell: "What If Sea Monkeys Constantly, Sometimes Dangerously, Bullshitted People"Doctronic, the "AI doctor"NIST reports companies cheat on "AI" evaluations"Microsoft Lowers Sales Staff's Growth Targets For Newer AI Software""PEN Guild wins landmark arbitration on AI protections""AI" assistant pop-up whack-a-moleCheck out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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: "This Is No Way to Rule a Country""Four ways AI is being used to strengthen democracies worldwide"Also referenced: Collective Intelligence Project surveysInterview with CalMatters CEOFresh AI Hell: Amazon introduces AI translation for Kindle authorsNature op ed recommends AI versions of Einstein, Bohr, and FeynmanAn AI Podcasting Machine Is Churning Out 3,000 Episodes a WeekAI dating café to open in New YorkRecipe slop flooding social mediaAI slop about Autism published in NatureUpwork ad for fixing LLM editorial"Hundreds of Chicago residents sign petition to pause robot delivery pilot program over safety concerns"Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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: Senate report: AI and Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a DecadeSenator Sanders' AI Report Ignores the Data on AI and InequalityAlso referenced: MAIHT3k Episode 25: An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your JobHumlum paper: Large Language Models, Small Labor Market EffectsEmily's blog post: Scholarship should be open, inclusive and slowFresh AI Hell: Tech companies compelling vibe codingarXiv is overwhelmed by LLM slop'Godfather of AI' says tech giants can't profit from their astronomical investments unless human labor is replacedIf you want to satiate AI’s hunger for power, Google suggests going to spaceAI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already hereGen AI campaign against ranked choice votingChaser: Workplace AI Implementation BingoCheck out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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" reviewing at AAAI 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 A new form of eugenics "AI Superintelligence" prohibition letter Emad Mostaque's LLM blurbs 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. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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. References: An early AI pioneer shares how the "vibe coding" revolution could reshape data journalismAmerica's top companies keep talking about AI — but can't explain the upsidesAnalysis: 96.2% of Climate News Stories Don't Cover Animal Agriculture as a Pollution SourceFresh AI Hell: Teen Sues Maker of Fake-Nude SoftwareChatGPT's Hail Mary: Chatbots You Can FuckGitLaw announces "Vibe Lawyering"Salesforce Offers Its Services to Boost Trump’s Immigration ForceTowns are saying no to AI data centers. One got sued over it.Rent a Cyber Friend will pay you to talk to strangers onlineThe Wire's David Simon is over itCheck out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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. Reo Eveleth is a reporter, writer, and co-founder of COYOTE Media Collective. They created the hit independent show Flash Forward, which they also turned into a book of the same name. Reo’s work has been nominated for a Peabody, an Emmy, and an Eisner Award. References: Tech Billionaires Need to Stop Trying to Make the Science Fiction They Grew Up on RealHow New Science Fiction Could Help Us Improve AIAlso Referenced: Statement from the listed authors of Stochastic Parrots on the “AI pause” letterFresh AI Hell: Stop Worrying About AI’s Return on InvestmentThe most radical act of feminism? Using AILeader of Albania Pelted With Trash for Appointing AI-Powered Minister to CabinetThe Human Cost of Every ChatGPT Query: Inside the Cobalt Mines That Power AIAltman on "AGI" and quantum gravityOK Go - Impulse PurchaseCorrection: 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. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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 Data and its (dis)contents Stochastic Parrots Day Dr. Casey Fiesler on TikTok Dr. Nicole Holliday on TikTok 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 Taco Bell AI drive-through 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. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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 Politico's recent AI experiments shouldn’t be subject to newsroom editorial standards, its editors testify 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. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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: People’s AI Action Plan Fresh AI Hell: Medical Pros Risk Malpractice Suits by Avoiding AI Innovation Google search’s next cash cow AI Is Coming for the Consultants. Inside McKinsey, ‘This Is Existential.’ The rise of AI tools that write about you when you die Amazon’s Alexa Fund Invests in ‘Netflix of AI’ Start-Up Fable, Which Launches Showrunner: A Tool for User-Directed TV Shows In federal lawsuit, students allege Lawrence school district’s AI surveillance tool violates their rights Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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 B******t 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. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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 AFT to Launch National Academy for AI Instruction with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and United Federation of Teachers  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. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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 Te Hiku Media 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 Better Images of AI 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. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

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 No, LGBTESCREAL isn't a thing ***** 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 Follow Alex: Bluesky/Mastodon Music: Toby Menon.  Production: Christie Taylor.  Graphic Design: Naomi Pleasure-Park. Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.