Emily M. Bender
@emilymbender.bsky.social
Book: https://thecon.ai Web: https://faculty.washington.edu/ebender
I, for one, am fed up with "stochastic parrots" being co-opted to erase the work of so many brilliant scholars and activists. Some references in this thread, but there are many, many more that could be added.
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · yesterdayThere seems to be a coordinated talking point among the EA folks that the "standard" approach to "AI" on "the Left" is "AI is just stochastic parrots so no need to worry about it". (Sorry for all the scare quotes, but y'know) >>
If you have concerns about AI, read this The AI Con. @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social know what's going on behind the sparkles and magic wands. #BookSky app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/1520...
Review by resing - The AI Con
If you have concerns about AI, read this book. Emily Bender and Alex Hana know what's going on...
app.thestorygraph.com
"not"
BYTESEU@byteseu.bsky.social · 14h agoHow should Boston police be allowed to use surveillance tech? – NBC Boston https://www.byteseu.com/2392590/ Boston City Councilors are expressing concern over how the Boston Police Department is using and pursuing surveillance technology. “We should be able weigh in on that,” said District 6 …
Meanwhile the real miraculous future tech is solar & mRNA vaccines: preserving the planet and curing cancer. But we’re supposed to hand everything over to malevolent peeping toms and resource oubliettes for an ill defined ‘pay no attention to the man behind the curtain’ progress. It isn’t rational.
Called "strategic ignorance" in the history & philosophy of knowledge, they pretend certain inconvenient "uncomfortable knowledge" doesn't exist in order to divert & frame the conversation in ways convenient to their bias & position. But there is a mountain of critical scholarship from all angles.
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · yesterdayIn making that rhetorical move, they are attempting to erase all of the work that we HAVE BEEN doing to warn the public and policymakers about the real harms being done in the name of "AI". >>
We call it "strategic ignorance" in the history & philosophy of knowledge whereby they pretend certain inconvenient "uncomfortable knowledge" doesn't exist in order to divert & frame the conversation in ways convenient to their bias & position. Read the thread for sources of critical knowledge. ⬇️
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · yesterdayThere seems to be a coordinated talking point among the EA folks that the "standard" approach to "AI" on "the Left" is "AI is just stochastic parrots so no need to worry about it". (Sorry for all the scare quotes, but y'know) >>
“AI” IS impacting labor, but not in the ways you think. In some cases, people generating “workslop” are making their colleagues’ jobs more difficult. Snippet from my video Myths of AI and Productivity, in which we at dispel 5 common myths around AI and labor. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BO0...
After seeing this repeated endlessly (in my standing search on "stochastic parrots") over the past couple of weeks, I think I'm maybe getting a better understanding of why it is so insidious. >>
Each paragraph is quotable, so the best thing is to click and read. "The best possible outcome from this summer of hype is that policymakers and the public at large learn to take a breath, hold onto our skepticism, and recognize this kind of hype for what it is the next time it comes around."
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 2d agoFrom @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
From @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype
Breathless claims about AGI and new capabilities fall apart pretty quickly under scrutiny.
technologyreview.com
I, for one, am fed up with "stochastic parrots" being co-opted to erase the work of so many brilliant scholars and activists. Some references in this thread, but there are many, many more that could be added.
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · yesterdayThere seems to be a coordinated talking point among the EA folks that the "standard" approach to "AI" on "the Left" is "AI is just stochastic parrots so no need to worry about it". (Sorry for all the scare quotes, but y'know) >>
This! 👇🏽 AI evangelists pretend that the debate over the nature of AI—namely whether it’s sentient or not, is a referendum on whether it’s dangerous. But that has no relationship to reality. AI can be, AND IS, harmful regardless of whether it’s conscious or merely a creature of its training data.
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · yesterdayThere seems to be a coordinated talking point among the EA folks that the "standard" approach to "AI" on "the Left" is "AI is just stochastic parrots so no need to worry about it". (Sorry for all the scare quotes, but y'know) >>
Good meta-commentary thread on the Present Discourse.
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · yesterdayThere seems to be a coordinated talking point among the EA folks that the "standard" approach to "AI" on "the Left" is "AI is just stochastic parrots so no need to worry about it". (Sorry for all the scare quotes, but y'know) >>
There seems to be a coordinated talking point among the EA folks that the "standard" approach to "AI" on "the Left" is "AI is just stochastic parrots so no need to worry about it". (Sorry for all the scare quotes, but y'know) >>
Meta’s PR machine is working overtime. Tech CEOs are writing “AI” memos left and right, and there’s plenty of hype to pop. We dissect Gates’ and Zuckerberg’s blogs about “superhuman AI” in our latest episode “Manifesting the End of Tech Bro Manifestos”! (with @emilymbender.bsky.social)
Timnit Gebru and Emily Bender say the latest AI breakthroughs and hacking scares aren’t what they seem.
Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype
Breathless claims about AGI and new capabilities fall apart pretty quickly under scrutiny.
trib.al
@timnitgebru.blacksky.app and @emilymbender.bsky.social puncture the latest AI hype, addressing everything from "hacking" to "math breakthroughs" to "superhuman" machines (and possibly break a record for scare quote usage along the way). www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype
Breathless claims about AGI and new capabilities fall apart pretty quickly under scrutiny.
technologyreview.com
Honestly, @emilymbender.bsky.social and @timnitgebru.blacksky.app should be honored for their work on LLMs and ‘AI hype.’
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 2d agoFrom @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
"...The public at large" should "take a breath, hold onto our skepticism, and recognize this kind of hype for what it is the next time it comes around." --Emily Bender and Timnit Gebru
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 2d agoFrom @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
"Once there is time for experts in the relevant fields to examine what happened, a very different story emerges, but one that gets less media attention."
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 2d agoFrom @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
"Instead of researchers being questioned about their companies’ habit of plagiarizing academics’ work or using customer data to train models without consent, the public’s imagination is redirected to fears about what the future might hold upon the arrival of fictional superintelligent machines."
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 2d agoFrom @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
'Describing them as “superintelligence” or “rogue models” ascribes agency to products rather than to the companies building them.'
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 2d agoFrom @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
“Is it going to suck losing so much money when this AI bubble pops that I have to actually move to Idaho or Texas like I’ve been threatening to for years without really meaning it? Yes, but it’s a small price to pay for being able to play victim of Washington’s future Millionaires Tax.”
The Needling@theneedling.com · 2d agoLocal Millionaire Investing in AI Can’t Wait to Blame Future Bankruptcy on Millionaires Tax: tinyurl.com/4kps6veu
"Instead of researchers being questioned about their companies’ habit of plagiarizing academics’ work or using customer data to train models without consent, the public’s imagination is redirected to fears about what the future might hold upon the arrival of fictional superintelligent machines"
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 2d agoFrom @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
"Claims of incipient, dangerous superintelligence are not based in good scientific or engineering practice. Rather, they are narratives based in ideologies of transhumanism, eugenics, and wishful thinking about imagined future digital humans." - @timnitgebru.blacksky.app + @emilymbender.bsky.social
Honestly trying to figure out what happened here. I don't *think* this is satire. Maybe these folks, so enamored with "human-in-the-loop"-less "AI" decided not to bother checking what their LLM spat out?
The word of the day is: "unleash" I've been seeing a lot of "unleashing AI", "unleashing expertimentation (with AI)", and even ostensibly critical "OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT on the world with no one's consent". >>
