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 ficti...
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 ficti...
More
Available Episodes
5 of 16
Episode 16: Med-PaLM or Facepalm? A Second Opinion On LLMs In Healthcare, August 28, 2023
Alex and Emily are taking another stab at Google and other companies' aspirations to be part of the healthcare system - this time with the expertise of Stanford incoming assistant professor of dermatology and biomedical data science Roxana Daneshjou. A look at the gap between medical licensing examination questions and real life, and the inherently two-tiered system that might emerge if LLMs are brought into the diagnostic process.References:Google blog post describing Med-PaLMNature: Large language models encode clinical knowledgePolitico: Microsoft teaming up with Epic Systems to integrate generative AI into electronic medical records softwareMedRXiv: Beyond the hype: large language models propagate race-based medicine (Omiye, Daneshjou, et al)Fresh AI hell:Fake summaries of fake reviewshttps://bsky.app/profile/hypervisible.bsky.social/post/3k4wouet3pg2uSchool administrators asking ChatGPT which books they have to remove from school libraries, given Iowa’s book banMason City Globe Gazette: “Each of these texts was reviewed using AI software to determine if it contains a depiction of a sex act. Based on this review, there are 19 texts that will be removed from our 7-12 school library collections and stored in the Administrative Center while we await further guidance or clarity.”Loquacity and Visible Emotion: ChatGPT as a Policy AdvisorWritten by authors at the Bank of ItalyAI generated school bus routes get students home at 10pmLethal AI generated mushroom-hunting booksHow would RBG respond?You can check out future livestreams at https://twitch.tv/DAIR_Institute. Follow us!Emily Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilyMBender Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emilymbender.bsky.social Alex Twitter: https://twitter.com/@alexhanna Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@alex Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Christie Taylor.
9/28/2023
1:02:02
Episode 15: The White House And Big Tech Dance The Self-Regulation Tango
Emily and Alex tackle the White House hype about the 'voluntary commitments' of companies to limit the harms of their large language models: but only some large language models, and only some, over-hyped kinds of harms.Plus a full portion of Fresh Hell...and a little bit of good news.References:White House press release on voluntary commitmentsEmily’s blog post critiquing the “voluntary commitments”An “AI safety” infused take on regulationAI Causes Real Harm. Let’s Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype“AI” Hurts Consumers and Workers — and Isn’t IntelligentFresh AI Hell:Future of Life Institute hijacks SEO for EU's AI ActLLMs for denying health insurance claimsNHS using “AI” as receptionistAutomated robots in receptionCan AI language models replace human research participants?A recipe chatbot taught users how to make chlorine gasUsing a chatbot to pretend to interview Harriet TubmanWorldcoin Orbs & iris scansMartin Shkreli’s AI for health start upAuthors impersonated with fraudulent books on Amazon/GoodreadsGood News:You can check out future livestreams at https://twitch.tv/DAIR_Institute. Follow us!Emily Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilyMBender Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emilymbender.bsky.social Alex Twitter: https://twitter.com/@alexhanna Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@alex Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Christie Taylor.
9/20/2023
1:04:05
Episode 14: Henry Kissinger, Machines of War, and the Age of Military AI Hype (feat. Lucy Suchman), July 21 2023
Emily and Alex are joined by technology scholar Dr. Lucy Suchman to scrutinize a new book from Henry Kissinger and coauthors Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher that declares a new 'Age of AI,' with abundant hype about the capacity of large language models for warmaking. Plus close scrutiny of Palantir's debut of an artificial intelligence platform for combat, and why the company is promising more than the mathy-maths can provide.Dr. Lucy Suchman is a professor emerita of sociology at Lancaster University in the UK. She works at the intersections of anthropology and the field of feminist science and technology studies, focused on cultural imaginaries and material practices of technology design. Her current research extends her longstanding critical engagement with the fields of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction to the domain of contemporary militarism. She is concerned with the question of whose bodies are incorporated into military systems, how and with what consequences for social justice and the possibility for a less violent world.This episode was recorded on July 21, 2023. Watch the video on PeerTube.References:Wall Street Journal: OpEd derived from 'The Age of AI' (Kissinger, Schmidt & Huttenlocher)American Prospect: Meredith Whittaker & Lucy Suchman’s review of Kissinger et al’s bookVICE: Palantir Demos AI To Fight Wars But Says It Will Be Totally Ethical About It Don't Worry About It Fresh AI Hell:American Psychological Association: how to cite ChatGPThttps://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgptSpam reviews & children’s books:https://twitter.com/millbot/status/1671008061173952512?s=20An analysis we like, comparing AI to the fossil fuel industry:https://hachyderm.io/@dalias/110528154854288688AI Heaven from Dolly Parton:https://consequence.net/2023/07/dolly-parton-ai-hologram-comments/You can check out future livestreams at https://twitch.tv/DAIR_Institute. Follow us!Emily Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilyMBender Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emilymbender.bsky.social Alex Twitter: https://twitter.com/@alexhanna Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@alex Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Christie Taylor.
9/13/2023
1:01:15
Episode 13: Beware The Robo-Therapist (feat. Hannah Zeavin), June 8 2023
Emily and Alex talk to UC Berkeley scholar Hannah Zeavin about the case of the National Eating Disorders Association helpline, which tried to replace human volunteers with a chatbot--and why the datafication and automation of mental health services are an injustice that will disproportionately affect the already vulnerable.Content note: This is a conversation that touches on mental health, people in crisis, and exploitation.This episode was originally recorded on June 8, 2023. Watch the video version on PeerTube.Hannah Zeavin is a scholar, writer, and editor whose work centers on the history of human sciences (psychoanalysis, psychology, and psychiatry), the history of technology and media, feminist science and technology studies, and media theory. Zeavin is an Assistant Professor of the History of Science in the Department of History and The Berkeley Center for New Media at UC Berkeley. She is the author of, "The Distance Cure: A History of Teletherapy."References:VICE: Eating Disorder Helpline Fires Staff, Transitions to Chatbot After Unionization… and then pulls the chatbot.NPR: Can an AI chatbot help people with eating disorders as well as another human?Psychiatrist.com: NEDA suspends AI chatbot for giving harmful eating disorder advicePolitico: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questionsDanah Boyd: Crisis Text Line from my perspective.Tech Workers Coalition: Chatbots can't care like we do.Slate: Who's listening when you call a crisis hotline? Helplines and the carceral system.Hannah Zeavin: You can check out future livestreams at https://twitch.tv/DAIR_Institute. Follow us!Emily Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilyMBender Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emilymbender.bsky.social Alex Twitter: https://twitter.com/@alexhanna Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@alex Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Christie Taylor.
9/7/2023
1:00:53
Episode 12: It's All Hell, May 5 2023
Take a deep breath and join Alex and Emily in AI Hell itself, as they take down a month's worth of hype in a mere 60 minutes.This episode aired on Friday, May 5, 2023.Watch the video of this episode on PeerTube.References:Terrifying NEJM article on GPT-4 in medicine“Healthcare professionals preferred ChatGPT 79% of the time”Good thoughts from various experts in responseChatGPT supposedly reading dental x-raysChatbots “need” therapistsCEO proposes AI therapist, removes proposal upon realizing there’s regulation:https://twitter.com/BEASTMODE/status/1650013819693944833 (deleted)ChatGPT is more carbon efficient than human writersAsking disinformation machine for confirmation biasGPT-4 glasses to tell you what to say on dates, "Charisma as a Service"Context-aware fill for missing data“Overemployed” with help from ChatGPTPakistani court uses GPT-4 in bail decisionChatGPT in Peruvian and Mexican courtsElon Musk’s deepfake defenseElon Musk's TruthGPTFake interview in German publication revealed as “AI” at the end of the articleYou can check out future livestreams at https://twitch.tv/DAIR_Institute. Follow us!Emily Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilyMBender Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emilymbender.bsky.social Alex Twitter: https://twitter.com/@alexhanna Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@alex Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Christie Taylor.
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.