Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

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) [https://x.com/sama/status/1925242282523103408] Emplacedness, real estate, and gentrification in San Francisco [https://sfstandard.com/2024/04/29/jony-ive-buys-up-jackson-square-properties/] Anthropic? More like anthropomorphic [https://x.com/sleepinyourhat/status/1925593968617955754] Karen Hao on her new book "Empire of AI" in conversation with Alex and Emily [https://datasociety.net/events/challenging-ai-hype-and-tech-industry-power] Fresh AI Hell: Don't use ChatGPT to summon demons [https://bsky.app/profile/microsff.com/post/3lprwvm4ijk2n] AI prompts accidentally left in novels [https://www.404media.co/authors-are-accidentally-leaving-ai-prompts-in-their-novels/] "AI" tutors are teaching fentanyl recipes [https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2025/05/12/these-ai-tutors-for-kids-gave-fentanyl-recipes-and-dangerous-diet-advice/] xAI's data center polluting Memphis with unpermitted methane generators [https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/06/elon-musk-xai-memphis-gas-turbines-air-pollution-permits-00317582] Gemini's on Bluesky - block it [https://bsky.app/profile/princejvstin.com/post/3lp7thz3a5k2j] Family uses "AI" generated avatar to give victim impact statement [https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/chandler/family-uses-ai-to-create-video-for-deadly-chandler-road-rage-victims-own-impact-statement#google_vignette] The market for "AI friends"? Lonely losers [https://bsky.app/profile/stupidartpunk.bsky.social/post/3lpwy6ohmbs2r] No, LGBTESCREAL isn't a thing [https://bsky.app/profile/davidgerard.co.uk/post/3lptgawljqc2b] ***** You can check out future streams at on Twitch [http://twitch.tv/dair_institute], and send us any AI Hell you see [https://thecon.ai/submit-fresh-ai-hell/] for future episodes. Our book, The AI Con, is out! Get your copy now [https://thecon.ai/]. Follow Emily: Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/emilymbender.bsky.social]/Mastodon [https://dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender] Follow Alex: Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social]/Mastodon [https://dair-community.social/@alex] Music: Toby Menon.  Production: Christie Taylor.  Graphic Design: Naomi Pleas Check out future streams at on Twitch [http://twitch.tv/dair_institute], Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see [https://thecon.ai/submit-fresh-ai-hell/]. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now [https://bit.ly/3OZ9PNx]. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown [https://bit.ly/456Q0Ln]. Follow us! Emily * Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social [https://bit.ly/3VpFk7H] * Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender [https://bit.ly/3yJ6g9z] Alex * Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social [https://bit.ly/4c05L9h] * Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex [https://bit.ly/3X4poc1] * Twitter: @alexhanna [https://bit.ly/3V6NuQM] Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park [https://naomipleasurepark.com/]. Production by Christie Taylor.

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 no attempts at accountability of any kind. Petra Molnar [https://www.petramolnar.com/about] is associate director of York University's Refugee Law Lab [https://refugeelab.ca/], and a faculty associate for the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society [https://cyber.harvard.edu/people/petra-molnar] at Harvard University. She's also the author of the book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving immigration in the age of artificial intelligence [https://thenewpress.org/books/the-walls-have-eyes/]. References: Department of Homeland Security: Robot Dogs Take Another Step Towards Deployment at the Border [https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2022/02/01/feature-article-robot-dogs-take-another-step-towards-deployment] Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People [https://www.404media.co/leaked-palantirs-plan-to-help-ice-deport-people/] Athens prepares to host DEFEA 2025, a major hub for international defence cooperation [https://defence-industry.eu/athens-prepares-to-host-defea-2025-a-major-hub-for-international-defence-cooperation/] Fresh AI Hell: Meta served teen girls beauty product ads whenever they deleted selfies [https://futurism.com/facebook-beauty-targeted-ads] Dating app/luxury surveillance leaks personal info [https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/02/dating-app-raw-exposed-users-location-data-personal-information/] "AI" for subway crime prediction [https://gothamist.com/news/mta-wants-ai-to-flag-problematic-behavior-in-nyc-subways] CA used "AI" to make bar exam questions [https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-04-23/state-bar-of-california-used-ai-for-exam-questions] CA using "AI" tool to bypass building permit process [https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/04/30/governor-newsom-announces-launch-of-new-ai-tool-to-supercharge-the-approval-of-building-permits-and-speed-recovery-from-los-angeles-fires/] Wildly unethical "AI persuasion" research on Reddit users [https://www.404media.co/researchers-secretly-ran-a-massive-unauthorized-ai-persuasion-experiment-on-reddit-users/] AI makeup to retouch Holocaust images [https://bsky.app/profile/vivocalle.bsky.social/post/3lo4s2dmyis2q] Check out future streams at on Twitch [http://twitch.tv/dair_institute], Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see [https://thecon.ai/submit-fresh-ai-hell/]. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now [https://bit.ly/3OZ9PNx]. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown [https://bit.ly/456Q0Ln]. Follow us! Emily * Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social [https://bit.ly/3VpFk7H] * Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender [https://bit.ly/3yJ6g9z] Alex * Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social [https://bit.ly/4c05L9h] * Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex [https://bit.ly/3X4poc1] * Twitter: @alexhanna [https://bit.ly/3V6NuQM] Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park [https://naomipleasurepark.com/]. Production by Christie Taylor.

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 [https://dair-institute.org/tescreal] nonsense, and Sinophobia to boot. References: AI 2027 [https://ai-2027.com/] Fresh AI Hell: AI persona bots for undercover cops [https://www.404media.co/this-college-protester-isnt-real-its-an-ai-powered-undercover-bot-for-cops/] Palantir heart eyes Keir Starmer [https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/palantir-boss-interview-keir-starmer-gets-ai] Anti-vaxxers are grifting off the measles outbreak with AI-formulated supplements [https://www.wired.com/story/antivax-grift-measles-crisis-bioweapon/] The cost, environmental and otherwise, of being polite to ChatGPT [https://futurism.com/altman-please-thanks-chatgpt] Actors who sold voice & likeness find it used for scams [https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/04/regrets-actors-who-sold-ai-avatars-stuck-in-black-mirror-esque-dystopia/] Addictive tendencies and ChatGPT (satire) [https://bsky.app/profile/jrosenbaum.com.au/] Check out future streams at on Twitch [http://twitch.tv/dair_institute], Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see [https://thecon.ai/submit-fresh-ai-hell/]. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now [https://bit.ly/3OZ9PNx]. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown [https://bit.ly/456Q0Ln]. Follow us! Emily * Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social [https://bit.ly/3VpFk7H] * Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender [https://bit.ly/3yJ6g9z] Alex * Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social [https://bit.ly/4c05L9h] * Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex [https://bit.ly/3X4poc1] * Twitter: @alexhanna [https://bit.ly/3V6NuQM] Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park [https://naomipleasurepark.com/]. Production by Christie Taylor.

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) [https://bit.ly/435tLGi] Jack Clark predicting AGI [https://bit.ly/431lPVE] Sebastian Bubeck says predictions in "sparks" paper have already come true [https://bit.ly/42Bk02D] WIRED puff piece on the Amodeis [https://bit.ly/3EUBHAW] Foundation agents & leaning in to the computational metaphor (Fig 1, p14) [https://bit.ly/4jDs2OC] Chaser: Trying to recreate the GPT unicorn [https://bit.ly/4k0dqZn] The WSJ has an AI bot for all your tax questions [https://bit.ly/42O3smH] ChatGPT libel [https://bit.ly/4izM3UJ] AOL.com uses autogenerated captions about attempted murder [https://bit.ly/4jNifVy] AI coding tools fix bugs by adding bugs [https://bit.ly/4jUxsnS] "We teach AGI to think, so you don't have to" [https://bit.ly/3RG9VLC] * (from: Turing.com [https://bit.ly/436Gad5]) MAGA/DOGE paints teachers as glorified babysitters in push for AI [https://bit.ly/4jXWenb] Chaser: How we are NOT using AI in the classroom [https://bit.ly/3SaUACL] AI benchmarks are self-promoting trash — but regulators keep using them [https://bit.ly/3YOtYer] DOGE is pushing AI tool created as "sandbox" for federal testing [https://bit.ly/3RCm4RH] "Psychological profiling" based on social media [https://bit.ly/3EFAyNK] The tariffs and ChatGPT [https://bit.ly/4jx8M5d] "I was not informed that Microsoft would sell my work to the Israeli military and government" [https://bit.ly/4jWgSnL] * Microsoft fires engineers who protested Israeli military use of its tools [https://bit.ly/4jtSXMv] Pulling back on data centers, Microsoft edition [https://bit.ly/4jpxZhQ] Abandoned data centers, China edition [https://archive.is/dx3Se] Bill Gates: 2 day workweek coming thanks to AI...replacing doctors and teachers?? [https://fortune.com/2025/03/27/billionaire-bill-gates-two-day-workweek-ai-replacing-humans/] Chaser: Tesla glue fail schadenfreude [https://bsky.app/profile/lebassett.bsky.social/post/3lktar7bozc25] Chaser: Let's talk about the genie trope [https://bsky.app/profile/spavel.bsky.social/post/3lkybyqtbzk2m] Chaser: We finally met!!! [https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social/post/3llb4rtodwc27] Check out future streams at on Twitch [http://twitch.tv/dair_institute], Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see [https://thecon.ai/submit-fresh-ai-hell/]. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now [https://bit.ly/3OZ9PNx]. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown [https://bit.ly/456Q0Ln]. Follow us! Emily * Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social [https://bit.ly/3VpFk7H] * Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender [https://bit.ly/3yJ6g9z] Alex * Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social [https://bit.ly/4c05L9h] * Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex [https://bit.ly/3X4poc1] * Twitter: @alexhanna [https://bit.ly/3V6NuQM] Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park [https://naomipleasurepark.com/]. Production by Christie Taylor.

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 [https://huggingface.co/meg] 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 workflows for enterprises [https://bit.ly/4luVuHX] An Open-Source AI Agent for Doing Tasks on the Web [https://hai.stanford.edu/news/an-open-source-ai-agent-for-doing-tasks-on-the-web] Scale AI announces multimillion-dollar defense deal, a major step in U.S. military automation [https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/05/scale-ai-announces-multimillion-dollar-defense-military-deal.html] Other references: Why handing over total control to AI agents would be a huge mistake [https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/24/1113647/why-handing-over-total-control-to-ai-agents-would-be-a-huge-mistake/] Fully Autonomous AI Agents Should Not be Developed [https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.02649] Bender vs. Bubeck: The Great Chatbot Debate: Do LLMs Really Understand? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtIQVaSS5Pg] Democratize art [https://bsky.app/profile/alepresser.com/post/3llocpwkicc2w] Fresh AI Hell: DOGE suggests replacing workers with "AI" (of course) [https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonwingard/2025/03/10/musk-replacing-workers-with-ai-should-you-be-worried/] Vape, or the tamagotchi gets it [https://futurism.com/vape-tamagotchi] * Via @maaikeverbruggen [https://bsky.app/profile/maaikeverbruggen.bsky.social/post/3lllvrhuazc2d] "AI" for psychotherapy, still bad, still hyped [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kasper-benjamin-reimer-bj%C3%B8rkskov-660a4899_ai-therapy-just-proved-it-works-and-the-activity-7311985672834224129-LYbd/] Biology (not) of LLMs [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/salathe_ive-only-skimmed-the-paper-a-long-and-activity-7311088692331204614-oj1U/] Mark Cuban's grifty chatbot [https://fortune.com/2025/03/26/billionaire-mark-cuban-ai-chatbot-masterclass-shark-tank-business-advice/] * Via @Hypervisible [https://bsky.app/profile/hypervisible.bsky.social/post/3llhzlb3vws2r] Palate cleanser: "AI is the letdown" https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/tech/apple-ai-artificial-intelligence/index.html [https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/tech/apple-ai-artificial-intelligence/index.html] Comic relief: "Fortified with AI" [https://bsky.app/profile/grandeped.bsky.social/post/3llol6phbps23] Check out future streams at on Twitch [http://twitch.tv/dair_institute], Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see [https://thecon.ai/submit-fresh-ai-hell/]. Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now [https://bit.ly/3OZ9PNx]. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown [https://bit.ly/456Q0Ln]. Follow us! Emily * Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social [https://bit.ly/3VpFk7H] * Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender [https://bit.ly/3yJ6g9z] Alex * Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social [https://bit.ly/4c05L9h] * Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex [https://bit.ly/3X4poc1] * Twitter: @alexhanna [https://bit.ly/3V6NuQM] Music by Toby Menon. Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park [https://naomipleasurepark.com/]. Production by Christie Taylor.