Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

How the War Department Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI (with Naomi Klein), 2026.02.09

AI boosters and the US military are engaged in a lethal love affair. Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein joins Emily and Alex to discuss how glitchy technology supports global imperialism — and vice versa. Plus, we explore which Dr. Strangelove characters are currently running the US war machine.Naomi Klein is a columnist for The Guardian and the international bestselling author of nine books published in over 35 languages. Her new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World, written with Astra Taylor, will be published in September 2026.References:War Department press release on GenAI.milOld-school racism from Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey"How artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of war"Previous episodes referenced:Episode 61: Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and Kate Brennan)Episode 50: Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara Kneese)Fresh AI Hell:"Cops Forced to Explain Why AI Generated Police Report Claimed Officer Transformed Into Frog""Amazon outbids WA utility for one of nation's largest solar projects""AI data centers are forcing dirty 'peaker' power plants back into service""Mamdani Targets 'Unusable' AI Chatbot for Termination"Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

A Bad Case of Hype-itis, 2026.02.02

Move over Dr. Google, Dr. ChatGPT is here, and it's even worse as a medical intervention! Alex and Emily scrub in to slice up some harmful new nonsense in the world of "AI" for medicine. What's the cure for an expensive and inaccessible health care system? One thing's for sure — it's not AI hype.References:"Stop Worrying, and Let A.I. Help Save Your Life""Introducing ChatGPT Health"Also referenced:"No, I don't want an AI scribe to write my pulmonologist’s note""The Danger of Intimate Algorithms"MAIHT3k Episode 62: The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie Harrison Dupré)Fresh AI Hell:Waymo files vague NHTSA report on crash that killed KitKat (See also: NHTSA Standing General Order on Crash Reporting)"Medical Schools Use AI Patients to Help With Clinical Training""What If Your Coffee Mug Knew Your Next Move? AI Researchers Made It Happen""Monkeys are on the loose in St. Louis and AI is complicating efforts to capture them"Using LLMs to "infer race, ethnicity"Tech CEOs hate ridicule as praxis!Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Hell All the Way Down, 2022–2025

This is a special episode, and it’s not like our usual livestream recordings. Instead, our producer Ozzy dug through the Fresh AI Hell archives to create a supercut of Alex's improvised transitions. She's made up dozens of skits and songs about the demons of AI Hell, based on weekly prompts from Emily and listeners. Finally, hear all the lore together in one place!Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Wrapping Up a Hellish 2025, 2025.12.15

For our last recording of 2025, Emily and Alex take on a TIME article naming the "architects of AI" as their person of the year. We also look back at the year in AI nonsense, and share findings from our Fresh AI Hell Wrapped. Happy Hype-y New Year!References:"The Architects of AI Are TIME's 2025 Person of the Year"Stanford AI Index ReportAlso referenced:Original "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photo"The Number of People Using AI at Work Is Suddenly Falling"Fresh AI Hell:Fresh AI Hell, WrappedAdobe for Education outputs sexualized images"'Low Tech ChatGPT' on physical paper""Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications that trained neural networks on 'bonkers' dataset"Hologram lecturers and robot sandwich-makers"'ChatGPT for Doctors' Startup Doubles Valuation to $12 Billion as Revenue Surges"No more ideas. Need AIdeas!"For the First Time, AI Analyzes Language as Well as a Human Expert""Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man’s Meta Smart Glasses on Subway"Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Defining AGI: Oops! All Eugenics, 2025.12.08

There's a new definition of artificial general intelligence in town, and unsurprisingly... it's bad! Alex and Emily rip up the tissue-paper-thin premises behind this latest attempt to define "intelligence." Plus, we discover that AI hypers love using logos that look like buttholes.References:"A Definition of AGI" landing page and paper-shaped objectFresh AI Hell:"What If Sea Monkeys Constantly, Sometimes Dangerously, Bullshitted People"Doctronic, the "AI doctor"NIST reports companies cheat on "AI" evaluations"Microsoft Lowers Sales Staff's Growth Targets For Newer AI Software""PEN Guild wins landmark arbitration on AI protections""AI" assistant pop-up whack-a-moleCheck out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see. Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website! Find our book, The AI Con, here. Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us! Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.