Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Technology

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

by 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.

76 episodes

EN-US language

All Episodes

1

Data Centers Go Nuclear (with Maia Woluchem and Dr. Livia Garofalo), 2026.03.09

57:12 Mar 31, 2026

2

Data Centers in Space!? (with Dr. Adam Becker), 2026.03.02

53:38 Mar 17, 2026

3

How the War Department Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI (with Naomi Klein), 2026.02.09

52:02 Feb 26, 2026

4

A Bad Case of Hype-itis, 2026.02.02

56:20 Feb 12, 2026

5

Hell All the Way Down, 2022–2025

40:34 Jan 30, 2026

6

Wrapping Up a Hellish 2025, 2025.12.15

58:29 Jan 13, 2026

7

Defining AGI: Oops! All Eugenics, 2025.12.08

55:01 Dec 30, 2025

8

This is What Algo-cracy Looks Like, 2025.12.01

59:14 Dec 16, 2025

9

You Talked to Workers for This Labor Research... Right? (with Sophie Song), 2025.11.17

53:14 Dec 2, 2025

10

Drag It All To Hell, 2025.10.27

56:44 Nov 18, 2025

11

Crunching the Numbers (with Decca Muldowney), 2025.10.20

56:20 Oct 30, 2025

12

Building Worlds Through Better Reading (with Reo Eveleth), 2025.09.29

56:59 Oct 14, 2025

13

Three Years of Ridicule as Praxis, 2025.09.19

55:42 Oct 1, 2025

14

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

55:07 Sep 11, 2025

15

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

57:51 Aug 26, 2025

16

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

59:00 Aug 13, 2025

17

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

1:00:58 Jul 30, 2025

18

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

1:16:52 Jul 7, 2025

19

"Like Magic Intelligence in the Cloud", 2025.05.26

59:50 Jun 20, 2025

20

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

1:01:58 May 28, 2025

21

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

1:05:02 May 14, 2025

22

AI Hell in a Handbasket, 2025.04.14

1:00:25 Apr 30, 2025

23

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

1:03:02 Apr 17, 2025

24

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

1:00:28 Apr 2, 2025

25

The Anti-Bookclub Tackles 'Superagency', 2025.03.03

1:00:00 Mar 19, 2025

26

The War on Knowledge (with Raina Bloom), 2025.02.24

1:00:23 Mar 5, 2025

27

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

46:34 Feb 19, 2025

28

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

1:02:12 Feb 5, 2025

29

Sam Altman's Fever Dream, 2025.01.13

1:02:19 Jan 22, 2025

30

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

1:00:47 Dec 30, 2024

31

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

1:02:35 Dec 18, 2024

32

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

1:00:33 Nov 26, 2024

33

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

1:00:11 Nov 13, 2024

34

Episode 43: AI Companies Gamble with Everyone's Planet (feat. Paris Marx), October 21 2024

1:01:22 Oct 31, 2024

35

Episode 42: Stop Trying to Make 'AI Scientist' Happen, September 30 2024

59:54 Oct 10, 2024

36

Episode 41: Sweating into AI Fall, September 9 2024

1:01:28 Sep 26, 2024

37

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 40: Elders Need Care, Not 'AI' Surveillance (feat. Clara Berridge), August 19 2024

1:00:43 Sep 13, 2024

38

Episode 39: Newsrooms Pivot to Bullshit (feat. Sam Cole), Aug 5 2024

1:02:04 Aug 29, 2024

39

Episode 38: Deflating Zoom's 'Digital Twin,' July 29 2024

1:02:29 Aug 14, 2024

40

Episode 37: Chatbots Aren't Nurses (feat. Michelle Mahon), July 22 2024

1:00:26 Aug 2, 2024

41

Episode 36: About That 'Dangerous Capabilities' Fanfiction (feat. Ali Alkhatib), June 24 2024

1:02:00 Jul 19, 2024

42

Episode 35: AI Overviews and Google's AdTech Empire (feat. Safiya Noble), June 10 2024

1:01:42 Jul 3, 2024

43

Episode 34: Senate Dot Roadmap Dot Final Dot No Really Dot Docx, June 3 2024

1:03:57 Jun 20, 2024

44

Episode 33: Much Ado About 'AI' 'Deception', May 20 2024

1:00:30 Jun 5, 2024

45

Episode 32: A Flood of AI Hell, April 29 2024

57:48 May 23, 2024

46

Episode 31: Science Is a Human Endeavor (feat. Molly Crockett and Lisa Messeri), April 15 2024

1:02:57 May 7, 2024

47

Episode 30: Marc's Miserable Manifesto, April 1 2024

1:00:45 Apr 19, 2024

48

Episode 29: How LLMs Are Breaking the News (feat. Karen Hao), March 25 2024

1:02:30 Apr 3, 2024

49

Episode 28: LLMs Are Not Human Subjects, March 4 2024

1:00:57 Mar 13, 2024

50

Episode 27: Asimov's Laws vs. 'AI' Death-Making (w/ Annalee Newitz & Charlie Jane Anders), February 19 2024

1:04:42 Feb 29, 2024

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