Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Emily and Alex are joined by technology scholar Dr. Lucy Suchman to scrutinize a new book from Henry Kissinger and coauthors Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher that declares a new 'Age of AI,' with abundant hype about the capacity of large language models for warmaking. Plus close scrutiny of Palantir's debut of an artificial intelligence platform for combat, and why the company is promising more than the mathy-maths can provide.Dr. Lucy Suchman is a professor emerita of sociology at Lancaster University in the UK. She works at the intersections of anthropology and the field of feminist science and technology studies, focused on cultural imaginaries and material practices of technology design. Her current research extends her longstanding critical engagement with the fields of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction to the domain of contemporary militarism. She is concerned with the question of whose bodies are incorporated into military systems, how and with what consequences for social justice and the possibility for a less violent world.This episode was recorded on July 21, 2023. Watch the video on PeerTube.References:Wall Street Journal: OpEd derived from 'The Age of AI' (Kissinger, Schmidt & Huttenlocher)American Prospect: Meredith Whittaker & Lucy Suchman’s review of Kissinger et al’s bookVICE: Palantir Demos AI To Fight Wars But Says It Will Be Totally Ethical About It Don't Worry About It Fresh AI Hell:American Psychological Association: how to cite ChatGPThttps://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgptSpam reviews & children’s books:https://twitter.com/millbot/status/1671008061173952512?s=20An analysis we like, comparing AI to the fossil fuel industry:https://hachyderm.io/@dalias/110528154854288688AI Heaven from Dolly Parton:https://consequence.net/2023/07/dolly-parton-ai-hologram-comments/Check 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.

UC Berkeley scholar Hannah Zeavin discusses the National Eating Disorders Association's decision to replace their helpline with a chatbot, the history and significance of suicide hotlines, the importance of training for crisis support volunteers, workplace toxicity and the threat of job replacement, ethical concerns of sharing data with a for-profit, and the hype around AI services and concerns about relying on chatbots for financial advice.

In this episode, Alex and Emily discuss the benefits and risks of GPT-4 as an AI chatbot for medicine, highlight concerns about an AI therapy service, question the ethical use of AI to simulate conversations with deceased figures, and explore the use of chat GPT in courts. They also delve into the potential of mind-reading machines, discuss limitations of language models, and emphasize the importance of consent.

After a hype-y few weeks of AI happenings, Alex and Emily shovel the BS on GPT-4’s “system card,” its alleged “sparks of Artificial General Intelligence,” and a criti-hype heavy "AI pause" letter. Hint: for a good time, check the citations.This episode originally aired on Friday, April 7, 2023.You can also watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.References:GPT-4 system card: https://cdn.openai.com/papers/gpt-4-system-card.pdf“Sparks of AGI” hype: https://twitter.com/SebastienBubeck/status/1638704164770332674And the preprint from Bubeck et al.: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12712“Pause AI” letter: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/The “Sparks” paper points to this 1997 editorial in their definition of “intelligence”:https://www1.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/1997mainstream.pdfRadiolab's miniseries, 'G': https://radiolab.org/series/radiolab-presents-gBaria and Cross, "The brain is a computer is a brain.": https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.14042Senator Chris Murphy buys the hype:https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1640186536825061376Generative “AI” is making “police sketches”:https://twitter.com/Wolven/status/1624299508371804161?t=DXyucCPYPAKNn8TtAo0xeg&s=19More mathy math in policing:https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/aurora-police-new-ai-system-bodycam-footage/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitterUser Research without the Users:https://twitter.com/schock/status/1643392611560878086DoNotPay is here to cancel your gym membership:https://twitter.com/BrianBrackeen/status/1644193519496511488?s=20Check 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.

Dive into the amusing yet critical examination of AI's ability to pass the bar exam! The hosts dissect inflated claims about legal expertise and explore the absurdity of AI aspirations within the law. They spotlight privacy concerns stemming from AI-generated communications and tackle the literary impact of spam from language models. With discussions on the future of legal jobs and the ethical considerations of automation, there's a mix of humor and serious insights that keep the conversation engaging.

Should the mathy-maths be telling doctors what might be wrong with you? And can they actually help train medical professionals to treat human patients? Alex and Emily discuss the not-so-real medical and healthcare applications of ChatGPT and other large language models.Plus another round of fresh AI hell, featuring "charisma as a service," and other assorted reasons to tear your hair out.This episode was first recorded on February 17th of 2023.Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.References:Glass.ai makes “diagnosis machine”:https://twitter.com/AiBreakfast/status/1620128621821317125?t=Q6tTAOcGAoFJ3Ko9m4EC9g&s=19Percy Liang claims 'PubMedGPT' can pass medical exams:https://crfm.stanford.edu/2022/12/15/pubmedgpt.htmlhttps://twitter.com/percyliang/status/1603469265583353856?s=20&t=SdWeINzUw92pbkTO8OAVqQEmily's reaction to the above:https://twitter.com/emilymbender/status/1603766381807570944?s=20&t=SdWeINzUw92pbkTO8OAVqQChatGPT gets 60 percent of questions right in US Medical Licensing Exam:https://healthitanalytics.com/news/chatgpt-passes-us-medical-licensing-exam-without-clinician-inputAn Apple Watch error is clogging up 911 lines:https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/health/apple-watch-911-emergency-call.htmlChatGPT-assisted diagnosis: Is the future suddenly here?https://www.statnews.com/2023/02/13/chatgpt-assisted-diagnosis/NVIDIA “eye contact” demo:https://twitter.com/Jousefm2/status/1616878021280993284“Theory of the mind":https://twitter.com/LChoshen/status/1623575423652139015?t=Ohc9tzB09pAEddAReLc6mA&s=09Check 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.

New year, new hype? As the world gets swept up in the fervor over ChatGPT of late 2022, Emily and Alex give a deep sigh and begin to unpack the wave of fresh enthusiasm over large language models and the "chat" format specifically.Plus, more fresh AI hell.This episode was recorded on January 20, 2023.Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.References:Situating Search (Shah & Bender 2022) Related op-ed: https://iai.tv/articles/all-knowing-machines-are-a-fantasy-auid-2334Piantadosi's thread showing ChatGPT writing a program to classify white males as good scientistsFind Anna Lauren Hoffman's publications (though not yet the one we were referring to) here: https://www.annaeveryday.com/publicationsSarah T. Roberts, Behind the Screen Karen Hao's AI Colonialism series Milagros Miceli: https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/spezialseiten/persons-details/p/milagros-miceli/Julian Posada: https://posada.website/“This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data (Klassen & Fiesler 2022) No Humans Here: Ethical Speculation on Public Data, Unintended Consequences, and the Limits of Institutional Review (Pater, Fiesler & Zimmer 2022) Casey Fiesler's publications: https://caseyfiesler.com/publications/And TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@professorcaseyWhere are human subjects in Big Data research? The emerging ethics divide. (Metcalf & Crawford 2016) Check 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.

Emily and Alex are joined by Dr. Jeremy G. Kahn to discuss the distressingly large number of evaluation metrics for artificial intelligence, and some new AI hell.Jeremy G. Kahn has a PhD in computational linguistics, with a focus on information-theoretic and empirical engineering approaches to dealing with natural language (in text and speech). He’s gregarious, polyglot, a semi-auto-didact, and occasionally prolix. He also likes comic books, coffee, progressive politics, information theory, lateral thinking, science fiction, science fact, linear thinking, bicycles, beer, meditation, love, play, and inquiry. He lives in Seattle with his wife Dorothy and son Elliott.This episode was recorded on December 12, 2022.Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.References:XKCD: StandardsWikidataConGish GallopThe Bender RuleDJ Khaled - You Played YourselfJeff Kao's interrogation of public comment periods.Emily's blog post response to NYT pieceCheck 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.

Emily and Alex discuss MetaAI's bullshit science paper generator, Galactica, along with its defenders. Plus, where could AI actually help scientific research? And more Fresh AI Hell. Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube. References:Imre Lakatos on research programsShah, Chirag and Emily M. Bender. 2022. Situating Search. Proceedings of the 2022 ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR ’22). UW RAISE (Responsibility in AI Systems and Experiences)Stochastic Parrots:Bender, Emily M., Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Shmargaret Shmitchell. 2021. On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜. In Proceedings of FAccT 2021, pp.610-623. The Octopus Paper:Bender Emily M. and Alexander Koller. 2020. Climbing towards NLU: On Meaning, Form, and Understanding in the Age of Data. ACL 2020Palestinian man arrested because of bad machine translation.Katherine McKittrick, Dear Science and Other StoriesThe Sokal HoaxSafiya Noble, Algorithms of OppressionLatanya Sweeney, "Discrimination in Online Ad Delivery"Mehtab Khan and Alex Hanna, The Subjects and Stages of AI Dataset Development: A Framework for Dataset Accountability(What is 'sealioning'?)http://wondermark.com/1k62/Grover:Raji, Inioluwa Deborah, Emily M. Bender, Amandalynne Paullada, Emily Denton and Alex Hanna. 2021. AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark. Proceedings of the 35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2021) Track on Datasets and Benchmarks.Ben Dickson's coverage of Grover:Why we must rethink AI benchmarks, Ben Dickson, TecCheck 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.

Emily and Alex discuss Sam Bankman-Fried's Future Fund, its essay contest, and the problems with using AI for prediction and resource allocation--mere days before the collapse of FTX. Also, we introduce our "What in the Fresh AI Hell?" segment!This episode was recorded on November 9, 2022. Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.References:Super Forecasting And AIBill Howe - Applied AI in High-Expertise Settings or Curation as ProgrammingSamir Passi and Solon Barocos - "Problem Formulation in Fairness"Vinod Prabharakan, William Isaac, Donald Martin Jr - Participatory Problem Formation for Fairer Machine LearningDavid Ribes, Andrew S Hoffman, Steven C Slota and Geoffrey C Bowker -The Logic of DomainsShoshana Zuboff - The Age of Surveillance CapitalismLee Vinsel on Criti-hype - Notes on Criticism and Technology HypeCheck 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.