Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

In this podcast, Emily and Alex analyze the Senate's AI policy roadmap, highlighting its industry-centric focus. They discuss AI's impact on jobs, workforce, and critical infrastructure. The chapter also touches on humor in AI hell, bias in AI systems, and tech news stories like AI police reports and Scarlett Johansson's voice controversy.

Machine learning researcher Margaret Mitchell joins the hosts to discuss 'AI deception', critiquing the misleading framing of AI systems, the risks of advanced AI capabilities, and ethical considerations in AI email communication. They also explore the impact of AI-generated text on human interactions and legal risks in using AI tools for employee handbooks.

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 ShotSpotter.**Lyrics & video on Peertube.*Surveillance:*Public kiosks slurp phone dataWorkplace surveillanceSurveillance by bathroom mirrorStalking-as-a-serviceCops tap everyone else's videosFacial recognition at the doctor's office*Synthetic information spills:*Amazon products called “I cannot fulfill that request”AI-generated obituariesX's Grok treats Twitter trends as newsTouch the button. Touch it.Meta’s chatbot enters private discussionsWHO chatbot makes up medical info*Toxic wish fulfillment:*Fake photos of real memories*ShotSpotter:*ShotSpotter adds surveillance to the over-policedChicago ending ShotSpotter contractBut they're listening anyway*Selling your data:*Reddit sells user dataMeta sharing user DMs with NetflixScraping Discord*AI is always people:*Amazon Fresh3D artGeorge Carlin impressionsThe people behind image selection*TESCREAL corporate capture:*Biden worried about AI because of "Mission: Impossible"Feds appoint AI doomer to run US AI safety instituteAltman & friends will serve on AI safety board*Accountability:*FTC denies facial recognition for age estimationSEC goes after misleading claimsUber Eats courier wins payout over ‘racist’ facial recognition appCheck out future streams at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now.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 Christie Taylor.

Drs. Molly Crockett and Lisa Messeri discuss the hype of 'self-driving labs' and the importance of human involvement in scientific research. They debunk myths about AI replacing scientists, explore the risks of oversimplifying AI in research, and emphasize the need for critical discussions on AI's limitations and benefits in scientific endeavors.

Dr. Timnit Gebru analyzes Marc Andreessen's AI manifesto, critiquing techno-optimism and discussing colonization, anarcho-capitalism in tech, and safety concerns. They delve into topics like DrugGPT for medicine, wearable AI devices, and the influence of Silicon Valley ideals in the AI realm.

Award-winning AI journalist Karen Hao discusses the limitations of AI in replacing reporters and the damaging hype surrounding LLMs. The conversation addresses Google's funding of news articles by unreleased LLMs and the impact on struggling publications. They also touch on the exploitative nature of Google's AI program for independent publishers and the challenges faced by aspiring journalists in the changing landscape of journalism.

Alex and Emily discuss the use of large language models in social science research, critiquing the idea of replacing human subjects with LLMs. They explore algorithmic bias, concerns about monetizing text data, AI events gone wrong, fake quotes in news, and the impact of deep fakes on election integrity.

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.' Meanwhile, both global and US military institutions are declaring interest in 'ethical' frameworks for autonomous weaponry.Plus, in AI Hell, a ballsy scientific diagram heard 'round the world -- and a proposal for the end of books as we know it, from someone who clearly hates reading.Charlie Jane Anders is a science fiction author. Her recent and forthcoming books include Promises Stronger Than Darkness in the ‘Unstoppable’ trilogy, the graphic novel New Mutants: Lethal Legion, and the forthcoming adult novel Prodigal Mother.Annalee Newitz is a science journalist who also writes science fiction. Their most recent novel is The Terraformers, and in June you can look forward to their nonfiction book, Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind.They both co-host the podcast, 'Our Opinions Are Correct', which explores how science fiction is relevant to real life and our present society.Also, some fun news: Emily and Alex are writing a book! Look forward (in spring 2025) to The AI Con, a narrative takedown of the AI bubble and its megaphone-wielding boosters that exposes how tech’s greedy prophets aim to reap windfall profits from the promise of replacing workers with machines.Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.References:International declaration on "Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy" provides "a normative framework addressing the use of these capabilities in the military domain."DARPA's 'ASIMOV' program to "objectively and quantitatively measure the ethical difficulty of future autonomy use-cases...within the context of military operational values."Short versionLong version (pdf download)Fresh AI Hell:"I think we will stop publishing books, but instead publish “thunks”, which are nuggets of thought that can interact with the “reader” in a dynamic and multimedia way."AI generated illustrations in a scientific paper -- rat balls edition.Per Retraction Watch: the paper with illustrations of a rat with enormous "testtomcels" has been retracted"[AbramovicCheck out future streams at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now.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 Christie Taylor.

Chris Gilliard, Tech Fellow, discusses the lack of student protections in AI-driven educational technologies at universities. Topics include the wave of universities adopting AI, limitations of Chat GPT, surveillance concerns, consequences of AI in higher education, privacy concerns in enterprise chatbots, impact of AI on journalism, and misconceptions about public statements and the retirement of a subway robot.

The hosts debunk claims that GPTs can replace human workers and critique papers on GPTs as general purpose technologies. They express skepticism about the potential impact of AI on economic growth and discuss the correlation between AI mentions and corporate expenditure. The value of AI in performing administrative tasks is explored, with humorous examples. The use of AI in ebooks and translation services is discussed, including the negative impact of AI-generated voices on language learning platforms.