Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

For our last recording of 2025, Emily and Alex take on a TIME article naming the "architects of AI" as their person of the year. We also look back at the year in AI nonsense, and share findings from our Fresh AI Hell Wrapped. Happy Hype-y New Year!
References:
"The Architects of AI Are TIME's 2025 Person of the Year"
Stanford AI Index Report
Also referenced:
Original "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photo
"The Number of People Using AI at Work Is Suddenly Falling"
Fresh AI Hell:
Fresh AI Hell, Wrapped
Adobe for Education outputs sexualized images
"'Low Tech ChatGPT' on physical paper"
"Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications that trained neural networks on 'bonkers' dataset"
Hologram lecturers and robot sandwich-makers
"'ChatGPT for Doctors' Startup Doubles Valuation to $12 Billion as Revenue Surges"
No more ideas. Need AIdeas!
"For the First Time, AI Analyzes Language as Well as a Human Expert"
"Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man’s Meta Smart Glasses on Subway"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

There's a new definition of artificial general intelligence in town, and unsurprisingly... it's bad! Alex and Emily rip up the tissue-paper-thin premises behind this latest attempt to define "intelligence." Plus, we discover that AI hypers love using logos that look like buttholes.
References:
"A Definition of AGI" landing page and paper-shaped object
Fresh AI Hell:
"What If Sea Monkeys Constantly, Sometimes Dangerously, Bullshitted People"
Doctronic, the "AI doctor"
NIST reports companies cheat on "AI" evaluations
"Microsoft Lowers Sales Staff's Growth Targets For Newer AI Software"
"PEN Guild wins landmark arbitration on AI protections"
"AI" assistant pop-up whack-a-mole
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

Tech leaders are pushing the idea that automation can strengthen democracy — but as usual, their bold suggestions are based on castles made of sand. Alex and Emily tear down some flimsy arguments for AI governance, exposing their incorrect assumptions about the democratic process.

References:
"This Is No Way to Rule a Country"
"Four ways AI is being used to strengthen democracies worldwide"
Also referenced:
Collective Intelligence Project surveys
Interview with CalMatters CEO
Fresh AI Hell:
Amazon introduces AI translation for Kindle authors
Nature op ed recommends AI versions of Einstein, Bohr, and Feynman
An AI Podcasting Machine Is Churning Out 3,000 Episodes a Week
AI dating café to open in New York
Recipe slop flooding social media
AI slop about Autism published in Nature
Upwork ad for fixing LLM editorial
"Hundreds of Chicago residents sign petition to pause robot delivery pilot program over safety concerns"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

Last month, Senate Democrats warned that "Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade." Ironically, they used ChatGPT to come to that conclusion. DAIR Research Associate Sophie Song joins us to unpack the issues when self-professed worker advocates use chatbots for "research."
Sophie Song is a researcher, organizer, and advocate working at the intersection of tech and social justice. They’re a research associate at DAIR, where they're working with Alex on building the Luddite Lab Resource Hub.
References:
Senate report: AI and Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade
Senator Sanders' AI Report Ignores the Data on AI and Inequality
Also referenced:
MAIHT3k Episode 25: An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your Job
Humlum paper: Large Language Models, Small Labor Market Effects
Emily's blog post: Scholarship should be open, inclusive and slow
Fresh AI Hell:
Tech companies compelling vibe coding
arXiv is overwhelmed by LLM slop
'Godfather of AI' says tech giants can't profit from their astronomical investments unless human labor is replaced
If you want to satiate AI’s hunger for power, Google suggests going to space
AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here
Gen AI campaign against ranked choice voting
Chaser: Workplace AI Implementation Bingo
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book, The AI Con, 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.

It's been six months since our last all-Hell episode! In honor of Halloween season, we take a long journey into the very scary Fresh AI Hell mines. Topics include terrifying uses of AI in education, scientific research, and politics — plus, some delicious palate cleansers along the way.
AI bubble: bigger than dot-com bust?
No one wants to pay for ChatGPT
Meta lays off 600 from AI unit
AI data centers: an even bigger disaster than we thought
Public universities anticipate data center-driven power outages
Chaser: Deloitte has to pay back Albanese government after using AI in report
"AI" schools are "dead classrooms"
Fake sources in "ethical AI" education report
Parents letting kids play with AI
Startup sells 'synthetic influencers'
AI-powered textbooks fail to make the grade
Chaser: "High-reliability" AI slop
Nature offers "AI-powered research assistant"
AI bots wrote all papers at this conference
"AI" reviewing at AAAI
AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and POC
Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT
Chaser: Microsoft blocks Israel's use of its technology
German initiative uses "AI" for voter education
Police gunshot detection mics will listen for human voices
SF's AI chatbot for RV dwellers
Cuomo campaign posts racist AI slop
DHS Ordered OpenAI To Share User Data
Chaser: LA County moves to limit license plate tracking
A new form of eugenics
"AI Superintelligence" prohibition letter
Emad Mostaque's LLM blurbs
Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery
Chaser: The hot new trend in marketing: hating on AI
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Find our book, The AI Con, 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.