More than a decade ago, before GenAI became such a contentious issue, Google Glass faced similar criticism. We are now facing yet another opportunity to collectively decide what kinds of technologies we do not want.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · last wk.

FWIW, Meta was fully aware of how these glasses would primarily be used. The glasses were designed to erase consent, and that is why they exist. Anything that they do that suggests they want to ameliorate this use is an attempt to win the PR battle and manipulate public opinion.

Anunciamos el título de un libro que convocará a algunas de las voces más brillantes reflexionando sobre la economía política de la imaginación financiarizada. Entre la paranoia, la alquímia y la especulación gamificada. Pronto compartiremos la lista de autoras/es 🥂

@elkeschwarz.bsky.social's terrific article on venture capital, hype and war has been translated to Spanish by @elsaltodiario.com. Léelo aquí ➡️ www.elsaltodiario.com/hype-studies...

How is AI hype shaping Europe's tech sovereignty agenda? Latest piece in our series at @techpolicypress.bsky.social, where @ceciliarikap.bsky.social and Vali Stan show how AI hype drives EU industrial policy, cloud infrastructures, and dependency on Big Tech. 🔎 l1nq.com/2td1hzw

Does Europe Really Have a Plan for Tech Sovereignty?

If the European Commission truly wants tech sovereignty, it should start by freeing itself from Big Tech’s epistemic capture, write Cecilia Rikap and Vali Stan.

techpolicy.press

SpaceX's $1.75T IPO ties Musk's pay to building a million-person Mars colony. A sci-fi scenario has been encoded into an SEC filing. My new piece on materialized science fiction and the remaking of empire is now live.

Illiberalism Studies Program@illsp.bsky.social · last mo.

New piece! @alirizataskale.bsky.social on SpaceX's questionable valuation, and how science fiction is being materialized as a transformation of empire.

Hype sheds a long shadow in techno-authoritarianism. @provokedeconomy.bsky.social writes this article on how paranoia, hype, and fascism feed each other in the creation of the "enemies of value." I can't stop recalling the visceral rejection of "de-growth" by the techno-optimist manifesto.

Tech Policy Press@techpolicypress.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Tech hype isn't just marketing and PR—it's also alarm, paranoia, and propaganda. Fabian Muniesa argues today's hype matches what scholars Adorno and Horkheimer called reason's collapse into fascist madness.

Venture capital firms are the editors of sociotechnical reality. They leverage narratives of collapse and renewal to shape what comes next. Read my new article: "Venture Capital and Religion, or How to Speculate on the Apocalypse" www.cccb.org/en/w/article...

Venture Capital and Religion, or How to Speculate on the Apocalypse

Large investment funds promote apocalyptic narratives to legitimise their power and foster an increasingly authoritarian technological model.

cccb.org

Mañana 5 de mayo, me siento a conversar con el escritor Javier Argüelles y la artista Elvira Prado-Fabregat sobre cómo las narrativas, ficciones, mitos y profecías relacionadas a la IA transforman lo que consideramos real. A las 19h en Casa América Barcelona ⬇️

És assolible una intel·ligència artificial? Conversa entre Javier Argüello i Andreu Belsunces. - Casa Amèrica Catalunya

L’ésser humà té certa dificultat per habitar la incertesa. D’aquí la nostra trajectòria intentant objectivar la realitat i convertir-la en quelcom mesurable i predictible. La IA és fruit d’aquesta his...

americat.barcelona

I wrote about the AI Hype in Legal Regulation for the excellent hype series curated by Jascha Bareis and @imaginaries.bsky.social @hypestudies.bsky.social

Tech Policy Press@techpolicypress.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Writing as part of our ongoing Hype Studies series, legal scholar Hannah Ruschemeier writes that the European Commission’s current 'Omnibus' proposal for the 'simplification' of EU digital regulation perfectly illustrates that AI hype has now arrived at the heart of European lawmaking.

Let's up the hype for the hype panel! For every other hype though, we recommend taking our self-paced Hype Literacy course – work by Jascha Bareis, @imaginaries.bsky.social, @klingebeil.bsky.social and Steffen Leidel. Johannes, fingers crossed for your flight. See you at @journalismfestival.com!

We just published a free, self-paced course on hype literacy especially tailored to journalists by Jascha Bareis and @imaginaries.bsky.social (@hypestudies.bsky.social), @klingebeil.bsky.social and Steffen Leidel. Check it out here: akademie.dw.com/en/the-hype-...

Hype is a powerful force shaping not only technology, but also politics, the economy, culture, and our perception of progress. Proud of this free tool, open to anyone interested in overpromising in tech and how to navigate it in a clickbait driven attention economy.

@hypestudies.bsky.social · 4mo ago

We created a Hype Literacy course for journalists with @akademie.dw.com 🔥Also relevant for educators, policymakers, and researchers interested in how tech narratives shape public understanding. Great work by Jascha Bareis, @imaginaries.bsky.social @klingebeil.bsky.social ▶️ shorturl.at/bDJU4

The fourth article in our @hypestudies.bsky.social series at at @techpolicypress.bsky.social is out. Brilliant work by @marche.bsky.social and Kathy Cleary exposing how AI hype obfuscates the extractive practices behind training and labelling LLMs.

Justin Hendrix@justinhendrix.bsky.social · 4mo ago

What is marketed as AI “innovation” is, in practice, a consolidation of global labor hierarchies and a commodification of African knowledge, write Marché Arends and Kathryn Cleary, drawing on their year-long investigation supported by the Pulitzer Center and published by Africa Uncensored.

Some images from my forthcoming speculative video essay, Metabolism of Techno-Financial Worlding. In it, I explore venture capital as a massive artefact fed by an energy called Reality³, whose function is to invoke entities from the imaginary realm and install them in our world, transforming it.

We promised more news about the upcoming Hype Studies Glossary so let's start with page 1! 🥦 Recruitment call: book cover illustrator/designer 🧀 Whoever came up with the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" must be a audible user. We're definitely in the "picture is worth a 1000 words" camp!

I started writing a BlueSky post about that Nature essay and kept going until it turned into a whole piece in Tech Policy Press www.techpolicy.press/the-illusion...

The Illusion of AGI, or What Language Models Can Do Without Thought

It is not simple stubbornness that LLMs are not “intelligent,” much less a form of “general” intelligence, writes Eryk Salvaggio.

techpolicy.press

We're waking up from the winter slumber to share some very exciting news! We've signed a book contract! "Hype Studies: A Glossary" is coming to your shelves in 2027. We are delighted to share we've signed a book contract with open access publisher, transcript Verlag.

a polar bear is laying on its back in the snow with a smiley face behind it that says to

ALT: a polar bear is laying on its back in the snow with a smiley face behind it that says to

media.tenor.com

How is Sam Altman's World infrastructuring a post-democratic AI future? In this paper published in AI & Society, @laura4lano.bsky.social and I analyse how World's value is built on sociotechnical fictions & existential risk narratives that advance a cyberlibertarian transition. tinyurl.com/c8kt4bbz

Estrenamos en @elsaltodiario.com colaboración con @hypestudies.bsky.social traduciendo al español sus artículos sobre tecnopolítica. Se estrenan con esta maravilla de texto sobre el hype y fondos de inversión de Andreu Belsunces @imaginaries.bsky.social www.elsaltodiario.com/hype-studies...

Por qué está aumentando el hype por la tecnología y qué tiene que ver el capital riesgo con ello

El autor examina cómo funciona el hype en el ámbito del capital riesgo y el capital privado, y por qué se ha convertido en un instrumento político tan poderoso.

elsaltodiario.com

for more crypto histories & imaginaries tune into www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_gW... @lanalanalana.bsky.social , Andreu Belsunces @imaginaries.bsky.social & Kobe De Keere cattting to @philiproscoe.bsky.social and @addiemcgowan.bsky.social

Crypto imaginaries, crypto escapes

YouTube video by Cultural Economy in the Kitchen

youtube.com

Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Explore more from Finn Brunton. His book, Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency is a fascinating untold story of digital cash and its creators—from experiments in the 1970s to the mania over Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Is there a risk that the dynamics of military technology hype enroll us all into a war hype? I argue yes in this piece just published by @techpolicypress.bsky.social. www.techpolicy.press/tech-venture...

Tech, Venture Capital and the Hype of War

The more of the world that is enrolled into the VC war-tech hype machine, the more we must ask where this leaves the possibility for peace, writes Elke Schwarz.

techpolicy.press

Really enjoyed the conversation for the @jcultecon.bsky.social podcast. We discussed the paper we wrote with @arturocastro.bsky.social on how crypto embeds and reproduces neoliberalism, and how it participates in and benefits from crisis. Enjoy the podcast, and please be patient with my Spanglish!

Journal of Cultural Economy@jcultecon.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Our next episode is now LIVE! Featuring @lanalanalana.bsky.social, Andreu Belsunces @imaginaries.bsky.social & Kobe De Keere unpacking the neoliberal roots of crypto, its design principles, role as a ‘social and cultural shapeshifter’, and the promises broken along the way.

Kevin’s chart really says it all. this is what it looks like when a vulnerable user gets sucked in by an engagement optimized chatbot

When a tech bubble grows, venture capital cashes in. Its high risk, high reward model depends on constantly persuading others that its futures matter. That’s why VC has a structural need for hype. Read my latest piece at @techpolicypress.bsky.social + @hypestudies.bsky.social

Why Tech Hype Is Rising and What Venture Capital Has to Do with It | TechPolicy.Press

Andreu Belsunces Gonçalves examines how hype operates and explains why it has become such a powerful political instrument today.

techpolicy.press

Also at @mozilla.org Fest, check out this AMAZING interactive installation, a visual database of AGI hype discourse, created by a group of talented students: hype-arenas.xyz It’s beautiful to see how one’s own research can step beyond academic language and become this ⬇️

AGI Hype arenas

A visual database of AGI hype discourse mapped into six key dimensions of uncertainty using qualitative research methodologies. Shown at the Mozilla Festival 2025.

hype-arenas.xyz

Getting ready to my talk on Artificial General Intelligence as a form of both Deep Hype and as Futures Governance instrument at @mozilla.org Fest. Come by if you around! schedule.mozillafestival.org/session/159

If you’re at @mozilla.org Fest this Saturday, join @hypestudies.bsky.social for a conversation on hype as a tech governance instrument by other means. The discussion will be facilitated through the first version of our Hype Literacy Toolkit 🖖 🔗 schedule.mozillafestival.org/session/31

"Ten lossmaking artificial intelligence start-ups have gained close to $1tn in valuation over the past 12 months, an unprecedented increase that adds to fears about an inflating bubble in private markets that could spill over into the wider economy."

‘Of course it’s a bubble’: AI start-up valuations soar in investor frenzy

Unprecedented funding leads 10 groups including OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI to gain almost $1tn in value in past year

ft.com

The weird & reactionary technopolitics of today are the result of 30+ years of debate among US technologists. Our paper with @arturocastro.bsky.social "Cryptofinancial Imaginaries" is out in the new issue of Journal of Cultural Economy. Thrilled to be part of this debate: tinyurl.com/24ptrbkn

Journal of Cultural Economy

Volume 18, Issue 5 of Journal of Cultural Economy

tandfonline.com

And that's a wrap! @hypestudies.bsky.social conference over and out! 🫡Thank you so much to all the incredible people who attended. This is what academia can be 🫶