Did your summer feel like an unending barrage of terrible ideas for how to use “AI”? You’re not alone. It's time for Emily and Alex to clear out the poison, purge some backlog, and take another journey through AI hell -- from surveillance of emotions, to continued hype in education and art.

Fresh AI Hell:

Synthetic data for Hollywood test screenings

NaNoWriMo's AI fail

• AI is built on exploitation
• NaNoWriMo sponsored by an AI writing company
• NaNoWriMo's AI writing sponsor creates bad writing

AI assistant rickrolls customers

Programming LLMs with "fiduciary duty"

Canva increasing prices thank to "AI" features

Ad spending by AI companies

Clearview AI hit with largest GDPR fine yet

'AI detection' in schools harms neurodivergent kids

CS prof admits unethical ChatGPT use

College recruiter chatbot can't discuss politics

"The AI-powered nonprofits reimagining education"

Teaching AI at art schools

Professors' 'AI twins' as teaching assistants

A teacherless AI classroom

Another 'AI scientist'

LLMs still biased against African American English

AI "enhances" photo of Black people into white-appearing

Eric Schmidt: Go ahead, steal data with ChatGPT

The environmental cost of Google's "AI Overviews"

Jeff Bezos' "Grand Challenge" for AI in environment

What I found in an AI-company's e-waste

xAI accused of worsening smog with unauthorized gas turbines

Smile surveillance of workers

AI for "emotion recognition" of rail passengers

Chatbot harassment scenario reveals real victim

AI has hampered productivity

"AI" in a product description turns off consumers

Is tripe kosher? It depends on the religion of the cow.

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Emily

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Alex

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

Dr. Clara Berridge joins Alex and Emily to talk about the many 'uses' for generative AI in elder care -- from "companionship," to "coaching" like medication reminders and other encouragements toward healthier (and, for insurers, cost-saving) behavior. But these technologies also come with questionable data practices and privacy violations. And as populations grow older on average globally, technology such as chatbots is often used to sidestep real solutions to providing meaningful care, while also playing on ageist and ableist tropes.

Dr. Clara Berridge is an associate professor at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work. Her research focuses explicitly on the policy and ethical implications of digital technology in elder care, and considers things like privacy and surveillance, power, and decision-making about technology use.

References:

Care.Coach's 'Avatar' chat program*

For Older People Who Are Lonely, Is the Solution a Robot Friend?

Care Providers’ Perspectives on the Design of Assistive Persuasive Behaviors for Socially Assistive Robots

Socio-Digital Vulnerability

***Care.Coach's 'Fara' and 'Auger' products, also discussed in this episode, are no longer listed on their site.

Fresh AI Hell:

Apple Intelligence hidden prompts include the command "don't hallucinate"

The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age

Family poisoned after following fake mushroom book

It is a beautiful evening in the neighborhood, and you are a horrible Waymo robotaxi

Dynamic pricing + surveillance hell at the grocery store

Chinese social media's newest trend: imitating AI-generated videos

You can check out future livestreams at https://twitch.tv/DAIR_Institute.

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Emily

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilyMBender
• Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emilymbender.bsky.social

Alex

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/@alexhanna
• Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@alex
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social

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

The Washington Post is going all in on AI -- surely this won't be a repeat of any past, disastrous newsroom pivots! 404 Media journalist Samantha Cole joins to talk journalism, LLMs, and why synthetic text is the antithesis of good reporting.

References:

The Washington Post Tells Staff It’s Pivoting to AI: "AI everywhere in our newsroom."
Response: Defector Media Promotes Devin The Dugong To Chief AI Officer, Unveils First AI-Generated Blog

The Washington Post's First AI Strategy Editor Talks LLMs in the Newsroom

Also: New Washington Post CTO comes from Uber

The Washington Post debuts AI chatbot, will summarize climate articles.

Media companies are making a huge mistake with AI

When ChatGPT summarizes, it does nothing of the kind

404 Media: 404 Media Now Has a Full Text RSS Feed

404 Media: Websites are Blocking the Wrong AI Scrapers (Because AI Companies Keep Making New Ones)

Fresh AI Hell:

"AI" Alan Turning

• Our Opinions Are Correct: The Turing Test is Bullshit (w/Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender)

Google advertises Gemini for writing synthetic fan letters

Dutch Judge uses ChatGPT's answers to factual questions in ruling

Is GenAI coming to your home appliances?

AcademicGPT (Galactica redux)

"AI" generated images in medical science, again (now retracted)

You can check out future livestreams at https://twitch.tv/DAIR_Institute.

Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.

Follow us!

Emily

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilyMBender
• Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
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Alex

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/@alexhanna
• Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@alex
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social

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