Emily and Alex read a terrible book so you don't have to! Come for a quick overview of LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman's opus of magical thinking, 'Superagency: What could possibly go right with our AI future' -- stay for the ridicule as praxis. Plus, why even this tortuous read offers a bit of comfort about the desperate state of the AI boosters.

References:

The cursèd book itself

AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark

Militants and Citizens: The Politics of Participatory Democracy in Porto Alegre

Fresh AI Hell:

Parents rationalizing exposing kids to AI

Underage, sexualized celebrity bots

Bossware a bad look, actually

CalState faculty union opposes AI initiative

The kids are alright

Check out future streams at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

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Emily

• Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender

Alex

• Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
• Twitter: @alexhanna

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Christie Taylor.

In the weeks since January 20, the US information ecosystem has been unraveling fast. (We're looking at you Denali, Gulf of Mexico, and every holiday celebrating people of color and queer people that used to be on Google Calendar.) As the country's unelected South African tech billionaire continues to run previously secure government data through highly questionable LLMs, academic librarian Raina Bloom joins Emily and Alex for a talk about how we organize knowledge, and what happens when generative AI degrades or poison the systems that keep us all accurately -- and contextually -- informed.

​​Raina Bloom is the Reference Services Coordinator for University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

References:

OpenAI tries to 'uncensor' ChatGPT

Elon Musk's DOGE is feeding sensitive federal data into AI to target cuts

Guardian Media Group announces strategic partnership with OpenAI

Elon Musk's AI-fuelled war on human agency

• Archive version

(Post now deleted) A DOGE intern asks Reddit for help with file conversion

When is it safe to use ChatGPT in higher education? Raina recommends the table on page 6 of UNESCO's QuickStart guide.

Fresh AI Hell:

Irish educational body, while acknowledging genAI's problems, still gives LLMs too much credit

From haircuts to dress design, AI slop is creating unrealistic expectations that hurt small businesses

Attorneys still falling for "AI" search

The latest in uncanny valley body horror robotics

Google claims to have developed AI "co-scientist"

Is AI 'reasoning' or 'pretending'? It's a false ch

Check out future streams at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

• Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender

Alex

• Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
• Twitter: @alexhanna

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Christie Taylor.

Sam Altman thinks fusion - particularly a company he's personally invested in - can provide the energy we "need" to develop AGI. Meanwhile, what if we just...put data centers on the Moon to save energy? Alex, Emily, and guest Tamara Kneese pour cold water on Silicon Valley's various unhinged, technosolutionist ideas about energy and the environment.

Dr. Tamara Kneese is director of climate, technology and justice at the Data & Society Research Institute

Due to some technical issues during our recording, this week's episode is a bit shorter than usual.

References:

A data center … on the moon??

Sam Altman is banking on fusion

Greenland is the new Mars

“Regenerative finance” in the crypto era

Fears of subprime carbon assets stall crypto mission to save rainforest

Corporate carbon offset company accidentally starts devastating wildfire

The AI/crypto crossoverAI/crypto crossover no one asked for

Blockchains wanted to build a smart city. The state could not sign off on its water rights

On petro-masculinity

Predatory delay and other myths of sustainable AI

Book: Digital Energetics, on Bitcoin/AI computing as a larger energy problem

Fresh AI Hell:

Fake books about indigenous languages

Surveillance company harrasses own employees with cameras

Schools SWATing kids based on AI outputs

Check out future streams at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

• Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender

Alex

• Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
• Twitter: @alexhanna

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Christie Taylor.