Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

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Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna

64 episodes

5 days ago

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...

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All content for Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 is the property of Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

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...

Show more...

Episodes (20/64)

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie Harrison Dupré), 2025.08.18

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...

1 week ago

55 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and Kate Brennan), 2025.08.04

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...

3 weeks ago

57 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox), 2025.07.21

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...

1 month ago

59 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Et Tu, American Federation of Teachers? (with Charles Logan), 2025.07.14

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...

1 month ago

1 hour

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Why "AI" Is a Con: Our Book Launch! (with Vauhini Vara), 2025.05.08

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...

2 months ago

1 hour 16 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

"Like Magic Intelligence in the Cloud", 2025.05.26

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...

3 months ago

59 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

The "AI"-Enabled Immigration Panopticon (with Petra Molnar), 2025.05.05

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...

3 months ago

1 hour 1 minute

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

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

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 ...

4 months ago

1 hour 5 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

AI Hell in a Handbasket, 2025.04.14

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...

4 months ago

1 hour

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

"AI" Agents, A Single Point of Failure (with Margaret Mitchell), 2025.03.31

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...

5 months ago

1 hour 3 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday), 2025.03.17

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...

5 months ago

1 hour

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

The Anti-Bookclub Tackles 'Superagency', 2025.03.03

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...

6 months ago

1 hour

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

The War on Knowledge (with Raina Bloom), 2025.02.24

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...

6 months ago

1 hour

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara Kneese), 2025.01.27

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...

7 months ago

46 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

The UK's Misplaced Enthusiasm (with Gina Neff), 2025.01.20

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 ...

7 months ago

1 hour 2 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Sam Altman's Fever Dream, 2025.01.13

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...

8 months ago

1 hour 2 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Episode 47: Hell is Other People's AI Hype, December 9 2024

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: Education Medical residency assignments "AI generated" UCLA course "Could ChatGPT get an engineering degree?" AI letters of recommendation Chaser: 'AI' isn't Tinkerbell and we don’t have to clap Part II: Potpourri, as in really rotten...

8 months ago

1 hour

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Episode 46: AGI Funny Business (Model), with Brian Merchant, December 2 2024

Once upon a time, artificial general intelligence was the only business plan OpenAI seemed to have. Tech journalist Brian Merchant joins Emily and Alex for a time warp to the beginning of the current wave of AI hype, nearly a decade ago. And it sure seemed like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and company were luring investor dollars to their newly-formed venture solely on the hand-wavy promise that someday, LLMs themselves would figure out how to turn a profit. Brian Merchant is an author, journalist ...

9 months ago

1 hour 2 minutes

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Episode 45: Billionaires, Influencers, and Ed Tech (feat. Adrienne Williams), November 18 2024

From Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, billionaires with no education expertise keep using their big names and big dollars to hype LLMs for classrooms. Promising ‘comprehensive AI tutors', or just ‘educator-informed’ tools to address understaffed classrooms, this hype is just another round of Silicon Valley pointing to real problems -- under-supported school systems -- but then directing attention and resources to their favorite toys. Former educator and DAIR research fellow Adrienne Williams jo...

9 months ago

1 hour

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Episode 44: OpenAI's Ridiculous 'Reasoning', October 28 2024

The company behind ChatGPT is back with bombastic claim that their new o1 model is capable of so-called "complex reasoning." Ever-faithful, Alex and Emily tear it apart. Plus the flaws in a tech publication's new 'AI hype index,' and some palette-cleansing new regulation against data-scraping worker surveillance. References: OpenAI: Learning to reason with LLMs How reasoning worksGPQA, a 'graduate-level' Q&A benchmark systemFresh AI Hell: MIT Technology Review's AI 'AI hype index' CFPB Ta...

10 months ago

1 hour