The Ai Con: How To Fight Big Tech's Hype And Create The Future We Want

Description

Two of the world's best-known AI insiders-turned-critics expose the lies and hype surrounding AI

Is artificial intelligence going to take over the world? Have big tech scientists created an artificial lifeform that can think on its own? Are we about to enter an age where computers are better than humans at everything?

The answer to these questions is 'no', 'they wish', 'LOL', and 'definitely not'.

In The AI Con, the renowned AI insiders-turned-critics Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, offer a sharp, witty, and wide-ranging take-down of AI hype across all its forms, exposing it for what it really is- a mask for data theft, surveillance capitalism, and the devaluing of human creativity in order to replace meaningful work with jobs that treat people like machines.

While most existing books celebrate the emergence of such powerful systems, The AI Con does something more important- it reveals that under cover of its dangerous misnomer, 'artificial intelligence' is simply the tech companies' latest ploy to become the robber barons of the 21st century.

Reviews

With their expansive, interdisciplinary expertise, Bender and Hanna write with absolute authority and unapologetic clarity about all the ways AI companies wield and weaponize language - in their marketing hype and as training data for their monstrous AI models - to create a less rigorous, less verifiable, more unequal and more BS-filled world. Despite the depressing nature of their subject, Bender and Hanna narrate it with incredible wit and verve . . . Come for the piercing observations; leave with the tools to slice your way through the absurdist narratives that prop up the AI industry and to hold it accountable -- Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI
A powerful and timely deep dive into what the AI hype cycle is REALLY about, why it's bound to crash, and what we can all do to protect ourselves from it. An absolute must-read! -- Karla Ortiz, artist and artist activist
The AI Con is a must-read . . . Drs. Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender cut through the dizzying hype to provide the clearest picture yet of what AI is, what it is not, and why none of us need to accept it being shoved down our throats. Their expertise and independence from the tech companies claiming to have created what the CEO of OpenAI calls 'magic intelligence in the sky', makes them two of the few voices writing on this topic motivated by the public's interests rather than their personal gains -- Timnit Gebru, Founder and Executive Director at The Distributed AI Research Institute
In The AI Con, Bender and Hanna deliver a hard-hitting, no-nonsense takedown of the so-called 'artificial intelligence revolution'. Far from the sci-fi fantasy of machines thinking for themselves, this book shows how tech giants are using AI as a cover for their real agenda: data exploitation, surveillance and a race to replace human labour with soulless automation. With irreverence and razor-sharp analysis, Bender and Hanna dismantle the hype and arm readers with the tools to see through the corporate doublespeak. This isn't just about debunking myths - it's about reclaiming control over the future that's being sold to us -- Ruha Benjamin, author of Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want
If you've been confused and bedazzled by all the chatter about AI, this book will help you make sense of all of it. Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna break down all the science-fictional flights of fancy, and painstakingly reveal the troubling reality that lies beneath. The AI Con is required reading for anyone who wants to survive the twenty-first century -- Charlie Jane Anders, author of Victories Greater Than Death

Author description

Emily M. Bender (Author) Dr. Emily M. Bender is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington where she is also the Faculty Director of the Computational Linguistics Master of Science program and affiliate faculty in the School of Computer Science and Engineering and the Information School. She is a leading voice in criticizing AI hype, and co-author of the touchstone 'Stochastic Parrots' paper that debunks the myth that large language models are or could ever be intelligent, which has been cited over 5,500 times and is taught in AI curricula around the world. She has made over 150 media appearances across the top international news outlets and in 2023 was included in the inaugural TIME100 AI list of most influential people in AI. Alex Hanna (Author) Dr. Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and a Lecturer in the School of Information at the University of California Berkeley. Formerly a senior research scientist on Google's Ethical AI team, her resignation letter from Google has over 79,000 views. She is an outspoken critic of the tech industry, a proponent of community-based uses of technology, and a highly sought-after speaker and expert who has been featured across the media, including articles in the Washington Post, Financial Times, The Atlantic, and Time.