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119 reviews for:
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna
4.13 AVERAGE
119 reviews for:
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna
4.13 AVERAGE
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna are academics who have co-written this highly accessible and interesting book that cuts open the suit of the shiny hype around AI that’s been shoved in our faces over the years, to reveal the venture capitalist and highly unequal motions underneath. Like with any other promising bubble we’ve seen in the past, the hype around AI is no different in its hidden mission to channel funds that could be better used to serve communities who need it, and is instead used to fill the overflowing pockets of the already-rich. It is, as the title says, a scam. It’s a scam that has co-opted governments and companies through the illusion of FOMO, seeping into every aspect of our everyday lives whether we want it or not.
The authors emphasise the need for resistance and community as pushback against this harmful hype. Unlike what both AI boosters and AI doomsters like to tell us, AI cannot replace humans because machines and a seemingly clever algorithm cannot recreate that organic human connection and complex relations that are needed to make this world continue to work, so that progress can be shared instead of leaving the majority of the people behind while the people on top continue to hoard wealth and resources. Things look dire and hopeless now, and I’ll admit they are, but the authors are convinced that AI is just another hype cycle like the ones we’ve seen in the past, and it’s only a matter of time before the bubble bursts. In the meantime, we must continue to maintain our communities as a form of resistance in the aftermath of that burst.
informative
medium-paced
reflective
A mixed review overall...
The great:
👍 how these AI experts demystified AI hype
👍 calling AI tools “text extruding machines” that merely predict “which words typically follow other words.” It was a mood
The good:
👍 this book strongly resisted any Cartesian-style metaphysical dualisms about ‘the cloud.’ Each chapter grounded AI tech in real world capitalism, politics, authoritarianism, Palestine, imperialism, etc
The meh:
👎 but that economic and political analysis? Not their strong suit. There were some flubs in there
The yeet it into the sun:
👎👎 and all that big, system-level economics and politics talk? Got me excited for the big, system-level solutions we’d propose. Except the solutions chapter fell back down to the individual level—about personal responsibility not to use AI and self-education (plus crossing our fingers for regulation)—when I wanted direct collective action.
But am I surprised that a Big Five publisher published a not-particularly-anti-capitalist book? Not really 🤷🏻♀️
The great:
👍 how these AI experts demystified AI hype
👍 calling AI tools “text extruding machines” that merely predict “which words typically follow other words.” It was a mood
The good:
👍 this book strongly resisted any Cartesian-style metaphysical dualisms about ‘the cloud.’ Each chapter grounded AI tech in real world capitalism, politics, authoritarianism, Palestine, imperialism, etc
The meh:
👎 but that economic and political analysis? Not their strong suit. There were some flubs in there
The yeet it into the sun:
👎👎 and all that big, system-level economics and politics talk? Got me excited for the big, system-level solutions we’d propose. Except the solutions chapter fell back down to the individual level—about personal responsibility not to use AI and self-education (plus crossing our fingers for regulation)—when I wanted direct collective action.
But am I surprised that a Big Five publisher published a not-particularly-anti-capitalist book? Not really 🤷🏻♀️
fast-paced
I fully agree with the principle of this book—AI hype is insane, AI is an environmentally disastrous anti-labor technology. But this is an unserious and weakly argued book. Very surface level and anecdotal in my opinion, just enough content for a long article not a full book. Important and true argument but I don’t think this book will persuade anyone who doesn’t already agree with them.
dark
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Made me feel not alone or crazy for avoiding AI, especially generative AI. I genuinely do not understand why some people have adopted it with open arms. When I see people use a synthetic image (fun new terminology for gen AI from the book) for something as stupid as a social media post, I feel deeply embarrassed for them—even more so when they try to pass it off as real. Are those likes really worth the skyrocketing electric bills we are all paying to fund tech companies? Or causing your neighbors to lose access to water? Anyway, if you’re feeling crazy every time someone waxes poetic about ai (synthetic) “art” or uses a text synthesizing tool like chat gpt to write a simple email, this is the book for you. Even covers ways to fight the hype!
informative
fast-paced
informative
medium-paced
A little scattered. A good primer if you unfamiliar with the AI space but not a lot new information.
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
A literal must read about AI.