x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna

Artificial Intelligence has too much hype. In this podcast, linguist Emily M. Bender and sociologist Alex Hanna break down the AI hype, separate fact from fiction, and science from bloviation. They"re joined by special guests and talk about everything, from machine consciousness to science fiction, to political economy to art made by machines.

technology tech news

All Episodes

56:20

Crunching the Numbers (with Decca Muldowney), 2025.10.20

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/10/30

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"...

en-us

56:59

Building Worlds Through Better Reading (with Reo...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/10/14

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 f...

en-us

55:42

Three Years of Ridicule as Praxis, 2025.09.19

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/10/01

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...

en-us

55:07

The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/09/11

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. Ref...

en-us

57:51

Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/08/26

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 experienc...

en-us

59:00

Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/08/13

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. Refer...

en-us

60:58

Et Tu, American Federation of Teachers? (with Charles...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/07/30

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 classro...

en-us

76:52

Why "AI" Is a Con: Our Book Launch! (with Vauhini...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/07/07

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 inevita...

en-us

59:50

"Like Magic Intelligence in the Cloud", 2025.05.26

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/06/20

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 Fra...

en-us

61:58

The "AI"-Enabled Immigration Panopticon (with Petra...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/05/28

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...

en-us

65:02

AGI: "Imminent", "Inevitable", and Inane, 2025.04.21

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/05/14

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: AI 2027 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 ...

en-us

60:25

AI Hell in a Handbasket, 2025.04.14

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/04/30

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) Jack Clark predicting AGI Sebastian Bubeck says predictions in "sparks" paper have already come true WIRED puff piece on the Amodei...

en-us

63:02

"AI" Agents, A Single Point of Failure (with Margaret...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/04/17

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 w...

en-us

60:28

Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/04/02

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 h...

en-us

60:00

The Anti-Bookclub Tackles 'Superagency', 2025.03.03

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/03/19

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: The cursèd book itself AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark Militants and Citizens: The Poli...

en-us

60:23

The War on Knowledge (with Raina Bloom), 2025.02.24

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/03/05

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 gene...

en-us

46:34

Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/02/19

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...

en-us

62:12

The UK's Misplaced Enthusiasm (with Gina Neff),...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/02/05

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 ...

en-us

62:19

Sam Altman's Fever Dream, 2025.01.13

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2025/01/22

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-PubFrom the blog of Sam Altman: ReflectionsMore about the ARC Prizeo3's environmental impactThe brain is a computer i...

en-us

60:47

Episode 47: Hell is Other People's AI Hype

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 ·

2024/12/30

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.Fresh AI Hell:Part I: EducationMedical residency assignments"AI generated" UCLA course"Could ChatGPT get an engineering degree?"AI letters of recommendationChaser: 'AI' isn't Tinkerbell and we don’t have to clapPart II: Potpourri, as in really rottenAI x parent...

en-us

66 results

Similar Podcasts

Lead With AI

Tamara Nall

Linux in the Ham Shack

Black Sparrow Media

Data Engineering Podcast

Tobias Macey

Eye On A.I.

Craig S. Smith

Reflections

Livewire Labs