The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want

Dr. Alex Hanna is the Director of Resarch at the Distributed AI Research Institute and the co-author of the soon to be published book The AI Con. Dr. Hanna's presentation is part of the Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education's spring semester series Can AI Generate IDEAs? Navigating the Promises and Perils of Artificial Intelligence for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access.

Abstract:

Is artificial intelligence going to take over the world? Have big tech scientists created an artificial lifeform that can think on its own? Is it going to put authors, artists, and others out of business? Are we about to enter an age where computers are better than humans at everything? The answer to these questions, we respond: is “no,” “they wish,” “LOL,” and “definitely not.” This kind of thinking is a symptom of a phenomenon known as “AI hype.” Hype looks and smells fishy: It twists words and helps the rich get richer by justifying data theft, motivating surveillance capitalism, and devaluing human creativity in order to replace meaningful work with jobs that treat people like machines.

In this talk, Dr. Alex Hanna discusses her upcoming book The AI Con (coauthored with Dr. Emily M. Bender), which offers a sharp, witty, and wide-ranging take-down of AI hype across its many forms. She’ll show you how to spot AI hype, how to deconstruct it, and how to expose the power grabs it aims to hide. Armed with these tools, you will be prepared to push back against AI hype at work, as a consumer in the marketplace, as a skeptical newsreader, and as a citizen holding policymakers to account. Together, we expose AI hype for what it is: a mask for Big Tech’s drive for profit, with little concern for who it affects.