Resisting the AI Con | Emily M. Bender

So-called AI is built on hype and its widespread adoption promises to dehumanize us and wreak environmental havoc. Emily M. Bender, computational linguist and co-author of The AI Con, describes how AI's 'boomers' and 'doomers' are two sides of the same coin - trying to convince us of AI's all-powerful inevitability. Emily points toward a path of refusal of this harmful emergent technology being pushed on us by the world's richest and most powerful, and she offers a vision of how we can resist and begin creating the future we actually want. Highlights include: Why the phrase 'artificial intelligence' is just a marketing term used to hype everything from chatbots to image processing systems to facial recognition; Why the concept of 'intelligence' itself is loaded with eugenics, race science history, and a stunted view of biological beings; Why large language models (LLMs) in the form of chatbots are devoid of the relational context of subjectivity, care, and conflict which humans use to negotiate their social contexts and which give human language meaning and accountability; How AI hype plays on FOMO (fear of missing out) and has led everyone from business, government, education, entertainment, and media to thoughtlessly embrace so-called AI at a rapid rate; How AI hype is used by both AI boomers and doomers to oversell the potential of their technologies and hide the serious environmental and labor harms that AI use is causing right now; Why so-called AI will likely lead not to a job apocalypse but increasing work gigification and dehumanization; How effective altruism, which is backed by Silicon Valley money and power, replaces relationality and accountability with cold mathematical notions of optimization; Why the ridiculous idea of “AI sentience” is pulling attention away from expanding rights to all humans and nonhuman animals; Why there's ultimately no responsible use of so-called AI and why it has no place in education where it atrophies critical thinking skills and damages the learning community; How individuals can resist AI in their everyday lives by refusing chatbots, automated search, automated doctor scribes, airport facial screening - and collectively push back through labor activism and citizen resistance to data centers. See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/pod... 0:00 Introduction 4:59 "Artificial intelligence" is a marketing term 12:37 Anthropomorphizing AI 15:02 Large language models 21:34 AI hype 26:40 AI's dehumanizing effect on work 35:21 AI boomers and doomers two sides of same coin 39:07 AI and effective altruism 43:16 Social and environmental harms of AI use 48:39 No such thing as responsible AI use 51:04 AI and education 54:35 Resisting AI OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings. Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance. Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/sub... Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org Copyright 2016-2026 Population Balance