Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)

Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)'s avatar
Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)
🛡️ emilymbender_at_dair-community.social@momostr.pink
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Professor, Linguistics, University of Washington Faculty Director, Professional MS Program in Computational Linguistics (CLMS) If we don't know each other, I probably won't reply to your DM. For more, see my contacting me page: http://faculty.washington.edu/ebender/contact/ Web: http://faculty.washington.edu/ebender/ Medium: https://medium.com/@emilymenonbender Book: https://thecon.ai/
RE:
Distributed AI Research Community
Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her) (@emilymbender@dair-community.social)
Attached: 1 video Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 70: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/18496243-wrapping-up-a-hellish-2025-2025...
 Also available as video on PeerTube:
DAIR-Tube
Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 70 - Wrapping Up a Hellish 2025
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 ...
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Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 70:
Buzzsprout
Wrapping Up a Hellish 2025, 2025.12.15 - Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000
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 ...
 in which @Alex Hanna and I take stock of the heights we’ve reached in our climb up Bullshit Mountain in 2025. Thanks to Ozzy Llinas Goodman for production!
New on the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 newsletter: Labeling resistance to "AI" as "denialism" is an attempt to dismiss it out of hand. The narrative of the denialism frame is that those opposing "AI" are afraid, under-informed and/or engaging in wishful thinking. None of that is true: The people who oppose the "AI" project are actively fighting and refusing to accept the premise of tech bros and AI boosters.
Resistance Isn't Denialism
By Emily I've recently noticed a new tactic on the part of AI boosters to attempt to erase the work of people who are resisting the project of "AI"...
Health experts: Your synthetic text "AI" overviews are misleading, for example see this about liver function tests. Google: Okay, we'll block "AI" overviews on that query. The product is fundamentally flawed and cannot be "fixed" by patching query by query. A short 🧵>>
the Guardian
‘Dangerous and alarming’: Google removes some of its AI summaries after users’ health put at risk
Guardian investigation finds AI Overviews provided inaccurate and false information when queried over blood tests
"The media has largely let [tech companies] set the terms of the debate, right down to the terminology used in any discussion of these systems." From Nanna Inie and me in Tech Policy Press on how to spot and resist anthropomorphizing language in the discourse about so-called "AI".
Tech Policy Press
We Need to Talk About How We Talk About 'AI'
We share a responsibility to create and use empowering metaphors rather than misleading language, write Emily M. Bender and Nanna Inie.
Anthropomorphizing language can be cute when applied to your favorite car, but it helps to muddy the discourse when applied to tech sold as "AI", especially given all the boosters and AGI-cult members peddling their nonsense about imminent artificial minds. New from me & Nanna Inie on Tech Policy Press -- how to spot & revise away from anthropomorphizing language applied to "AI":
Tech Policy Press
We Need to Talk About How We Talk About 'AI'
We share a responsibility to create and use empowering metaphors rather than misleading language, write Emily M. Bender and Nanna Inie.
Finally got around to reading this one and, it's not great. Mostly it's frustrating to see how the muddled logic and motivated reasoning of Yoshua Bengio & co make it hard for journalists to get and convey a clear understanding.
Science
Science fiction warned AI could end humanity. We may soon learn if it's possible.
Tech companies are claiming machines more intelligent than us and capable of having their own agendas are just around the corner.
 Short 🧵>>
RE:
Distributed AI Research Community
Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her) (@emilymbender@dair-community.social)
PSA: If someone is posting about behavior being exhausting to the point that they are considering leaving a platform, then doing more of it "as a j...
 I've literally had three people reply to this with mansplaining-as-a-joke. To *this*. I'm usually pretty slow to block folks (preferring mute, if anything) but such a clear signal of disrespect for boundaries earns a block with a quickness. View quoted note →