Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Lately, a new framework has been creeping into AI boosterism: "harm reduction," or "responsible use." Education technology scholar dr. sava saheli singh joins Alex and Emily to unpack narratives around automation inevitability in the classroom. Spoiler alert: they're not actually "reducing harm" to students at all!
An interdisciplinary scholar and filmmaker, sava is currently working on a research project examining secondary school teachers’ experiences of genAI use, and making a film about the future of AI in education. Her speculative short film series on the harms of surveillance technology is available at screeningsurveillance.com.
References:
"Harm Reduction: A Strategy to Mitigate the Risks of AI"Also referenced: MAIHT3k newsletter, "How to talk about 'AI' without adding to the anthropomorphization"

UNESCO "AI competency framework for students"
Fresh AI Hell:
Hallucination rebranded as "critical confabulation"
"Pennsylvania Board of Medicine Alleges Unlawful Practice of Medicine by an AI Chatbot"
"Google's smart home AI will be able to use clothing to identify people"
"Medicare AI program made them suffer in pain. Now they want answers"
"Why do these Castro gay bars have TSA-style face scanners?"
"County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'"
Palate cleanser: "Florida AG sues OpenAI, seeks to hold CEO Altman personally liable"
Palate cleanser: "Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
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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.

AI boosters want to hand off emergency services to the bullshit generators. And horrifyingly, some medical professionals want to help them! Join Emily and Alex for a deep dive on the latest automated horrors threatening our collective health and safety.
References:
"The role of large language models in emergency care: a comprehensive benchmarking study"
"Seattle uses AI to help triage, divert 911 medical calls"Also referenced: MAIHT3k newsletter on Seattle's 911 automation

"FDA approves early warning system for sepsis"Also referenced: Underlying research paper on this system

Fresh AI Hell:
Family business stops shipping due to automated delivery nonsense
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says people aren't "evolved" enough to understand AI
"California judges are testing a new AI clerk, and you won't know if it’s looking at your case"
Nonconsensual "AI monitors" for memory care
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the goal is Star Trek computer and/or R2D2
"A little surveillance break, as a treat"
"Virtual child" chatbot company
Chaser: Festus, MO residents vote out council members who approved data center
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch 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.

What should we do when the "AI" bubble pops? Emily and Alex are joined by researcher Matt Scherer, who recently published a report called "No Bailout for Big Tech Billionaires: Policies for when the AI bubble bursts." They unpack what the boosters are saying about their finances, and how we can all push back against arguments for a government bailout.
Matt Scherer is a fellow at the anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute. He previously led the workers' rights project at the Center for Democracy & Technology.
References:
Forbes: "AI Can Change The World And Still Be A Bubble"Also referenced: Is AI Profitable Yet?

CNBC: "Altman says some investors will be left 'very burnt'"
CNBC: "Bezos brushes off concerns of an AI bubble: 'You shouldn’t worry about it'
Fresh AI Hell:
Empty Waymos create self-driving traffic jam
"AA digital sponsor"
Stanford researchers claim "AI agents...embrace Marxist ideologies"
"Chatbots at the drive-thru"
YouGov polling on automated juries
Chaser: Erin Brockovich is on the case!
AI Startup Says It Will Pay People $2,000 a Month to Masturbate
Chaser: You used which brush!?
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch 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.

"Sure, LLMs are bad at some things, but you can't deny that they're useful for programming!" Sound familiar? In this week's episode, Emily and Alex break down the key myths around AI-boosted productivity in tech. Plus, Alex previews her work with DAIR's newly launched Luddite Lab, where workers are organizing against automation.
References:
Yale Budget Lab report: "What Might AI Adoption Mean for the Fiscal and Economic Outlook?"Also referenced: Karger et al. paper funded by Open Philanthropy

Garry Tan’s gstack
"Karpathy-Inspired Claude Code Guidelines"
Previous MAIHT3k episodes referenced:
Episode 60: Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox)
Episode 53: Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday)
Fresh AI Hell:
Emotional surveillance at work
DARPA call for proposals on "Decentralized Artificial Intelligence"
CircleCI claims "the promised AI productivity boom isn’t all hype"
Andreessen is at it again
"A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed"
Retraction of pro-edtech paper
Chaser: "Minnesota passes the nation’s first ban on ‘nudification’ apps"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch 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.

Senator Bernie Sanders recently hosted a panel on "The Existential Threat of AI," featuring Future of Life Institute co-founder Max Tegmark and other x-riskers. Dr. Nathalie Maréchal joins Emily and Alex to unpack this latest stop on Bernie's descent into doomerism. We return to the MST3k model with a rare video artifact!
Nathalie Maréchal is a writer, researcher and advocate fighting for democracy and human rights in the age of technofascism. Her latest article, "Tech Policy Is on the Front Line of Fascism vs. Democracy. Pick a Side," is available in Tech Policy Press. She is currently the managing policy director at Northeastern University’s Institute for Information, the Internet, and Democracy.
References:
"LIVE: The Existential Threat of AI and the Need for International Cooperation"
Fresh AI Hell:
"The AI Pledge for Humanity" petition
Richard Dawkins force-femmes a chatbot
Anthropic claims LLMs have "emotion concepts"
Palantir wants us all to stop being mean to data centers
"Optimizing LLM costs by inventing employees again"
Luxury surveillance cat
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch 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.