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Recognizing AI Hype and How People Can Fight Back / Emily Bender and Alex Hanna

Jun 3
Episode 1838: Recognizing AI Hype and How People Can Fight Back / Emily Bender and Alex Hanna
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What AI hype does it gives the idea that these things are more than what they are. What they are are these text extrusion machines and so that’s important to point out. And so pointing out that the emperor wears no clothes is a very important step. From what we call this on the podcast is using ridicule as praxis. As a way of showing that this is not some incredible new technology. It’s a massive carbon sink that has terrible environmental implications based on stolen work and relying on exploitative labor conditions. Pointing it out that it’s not that impressive. It is mid. So the outputs are bad of in themselves. And then there is the question of power. How do we fight back against this?

Dr. Emily M. Bender and Dr. Alex Hanna, come on the show to talk about their new book “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want” published by LitHub. The book tackles the pitfalls of AI and why it’s so crucial to understand the capitalist greed that is manipulating AI behind the scenes.

A new installment of “This Week In Rotten History” from Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview.

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Guest

Alex Hanna

@alexhanna

Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and a Lecturer in the School of Information at the University of California Berkeley. She is an outspoken critic of the tech industry, a proponent of community-based uses of technology, and a highly sought-after speaker and expert who has been featured across the media, including articles in the Washington Post, Financial Times, The Atlantic, and Time.

 

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Guest

Emily Bender

@emilymbender

Emily M. Bender is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington where she is also the Faculty Director of the Computational Linguistics Master of Science program and affiliate faculty in the School of Computer Science and Engineering and the Information School. In 2023, she was included in the inaugural Time 100 list of the most influential people in AI. She is frequently consulted by policymakers, from municipal officials to the federal government to the United Nations, for insight into how to understand so-called AI technologies.