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A review by books_ergo_sum
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want by Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna
reflective
3.0
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 🤷🏻♀️