Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

When the Bubble Bursts (with Matt Scherer), 2026.06.01

What should we do when the "AI" bubble pops? Emily and Alex are joined by researcher Matt Scherer, who recently published a report called "No Bailout for Big Tech Billionaires: Policies for when the AI bubble bursts." They unpack what the boosters are saying about their finances, and how we can all push back against arguments for a government bailout.Matt Scherer is a fellow at the anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute. He previously led the workers' rights project at the Center for Democracy & Technology.References:Forbes: "AI Can Change The World And Still Be A Bubble"Also referenced: Is AI Profitable Yet?CNBC: "Altman says some investors will be left 'very burnt'"CNBC: "Bezos brushes off concerns of an AI bubble: 'You shouldn’t worry about it'Fresh AI Hell:Empty Waymos create self-driving traffic jam"AA digital sponsor"Stanford researchers claim "AI agents...embrace Marxist ideologies""Chatbots at the drive-thru"YouGov polling on automated juriesChaser: Erin Brockovich is on the case!AI Startup Says It Will Pay People $2,000 a Month to MasturbateChaser: You used which brush!?Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.Follow us!EmilyBluesky: emilymbender.bsky.socialMastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBenderAlexBluesky: alexhanna.bsky.socialMastodon: dair-community.social/@alexTwitter: @alexhannaMusic by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Beware the 20x Engineer, 2026.05.11

"Sure, LLMs are bad at some things, but you can't deny that they're useful for programming!" Sound familiar? In this week's episode, Emily and Alex break down the key myths around AI-boosted productivity in tech. Plus, Alex previews her work with DAIR's newly launched Luddite Lab, where workers are organizing against automation.References:Yale Budget Lab report: "What Might AI Adoption Mean for the Fiscal and Economic Outlook?"Also referenced: Karger et al. paper funded by Open PhilanthropyGarry Tan’s gstack"Karpathy-Inspired Claude Code Guidelines"Previous MAIHT3k episodes referenced:Episode 60: Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox)Episode 53: Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday)Fresh AI Hell:Emotional surveillance at workDARPA call for proposals on "Decentralized Artificial Intelligence"CircleCI claims "the promised AI productivity boom isn’t all hype"Andreessen is at it again"A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed"Retraction of pro-edtech paperChaser: "Minnesota passes the nation’s first ban on ‘nudification’ apps"Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.Follow us!EmilyBluesky: emilymbender.bsky.socialMastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBenderAlexBluesky: alexhanna.bsky.socialMastodon: dair-community.social/@alexTwitter: @alexhannaMusic by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Bernie Goes Down the X-Risk Rabbithole (with Dr. Nathalie Maréchal), 2026.05.04

Senator Bernie Sanders recently hosted a panel on "The Existential Threat of AI," featuring Future of Life Institute co-founder Max Tegmark and other x-riskers. Dr. Nathalie Maréchal joins Emily and Alex to unpack this latest stop on Bernie's descent into doomerism. We return to the MST3k model with a rare video artifact!Nathalie Maréchal is a writer, researcher and advocate fighting for democracy and human rights in the age of technofascism. Her latest article, "Tech Policy Is on the Front Line of Fascism vs. Democracy. Pick a Side," is available in Tech Policy Press. She is currently the managing policy director at Northeastern University’s Institute for Information, the Internet, and Democracy.References:"LIVE: The Existential Threat of AI and the Need for International Cooperation"Fresh AI Hell:"The AI Pledge for Humanity" petitionRichard Dawkins force-femmes a chatbotAnthropic claims LLMs have "emotion concepts"Palantir wants us all to stop being mean to data centers"Optimizing LLM costs by inventing employees again"Luxury surveillance catCheck out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.Follow us!EmilyBluesky: emilymbender.bsky.socialMastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBenderAlexBluesky: alexhanna.bsky.socialMastodon: dair-community.social/@alexTwitter: @alexhannaMusic by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

LIVE: Anthropic Imagines a Very Special Boy, 2026.04.30

Last month, we recorded our very first in-person podcast, live from Brooklyn! Alex and Emily debunk an especially soulless hype artifact about Anthropic's absurd claims of "moral education" for chatbots. Tune in to hear our rendition of "There Was A Society That Swallowed AI," plus other fun surprises!References:"Claude has an 80-page 'soul document'"Fresh AI Hell:NYC schools "Guidance on Artificial Intelligence""Therapy App Sessions Exposed in Court"Meta to track "employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training data"News org uses real journalist names on synthetic text"New Gas-Powered Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Entire Nations""The first agentic cannabis device"TikTok auto–opts in users for "AI" remixesOberlin students push back on "Year of AI Exploration""This is just to say / I have turned off / the AI features"Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.Follow us!EmilyBluesky: emilymbender.bsky.socialMastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBenderAlexBluesky: alexhanna.bsky.socialMastodon: dair-community.social/@alexTwitter: @alexhannaMusic by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Hotter Than (AI) Hell, 2026.04.20

The weather’s getting warmer, so what better time to take a trip to the hottest place in the universe — Fresh AI Hell! Emily and Alex take a spin through more than 30 hype artifacts, with topics including medicine, data centers, and fake people.Fresh AI Hell regions visited:AI bubble + data centersFake peopleMedicineThis is your brain on ChatGPTPolicy + privacySee the show notes on Peertube for a full list of artifacts referenced.Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.Follow us!EmilyBluesky: emilymbender.bsky.socialMastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBenderAlexBluesky: alexhanna.bsky.socialMastodon: dair-community.social/@alexTwitter: @alexhannaMusic by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.