“standing together, twenty toes down” with Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna

This week, we’re joined by AI hype-busters and co-hosts of the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 podcast, Drs. Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna. We ask them to take off their critics' hats and talk about the tech futures they want to see, finding joy in AI hell, and what they would do if they were given control of OpenAI tomorrow.

Dr. Emily M. Bender is an American linguist and professor at the University of Washington, where she directs its Computational Linguistics Laboratory. She specializes in the risks of large language models and ethics in natural language processing. Emily is the co-author of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want.

Dr. Alex Hanna is an Egyptian-American sociologist and director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). She co-hosts the podcast Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 with linguist Emily M. Bender, and is the co-author of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want.

Other futures is hosted by Dylan Thomas Doyle (@dylantdoyle.bsky.social) and Dylan Baker (@dylnbkr.bsky.social). The show is brought to you by the Distributed AI Research Institute and the All Tomorrows Institute. It was edited by Jasmyn Morris. Music by Clair Marlo. Artwork by Pauline Wee.

Relevant links

• Emily and Alex’s podcast, Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000
• Emily and Alex’s book, The AI Con
• What is a cyberdeck?
• Emily’s talk Resisting Dehumanization in the Age of "AI": The View from the Humanities
• Ghost in the machine movie