Emily M. Bender & Alex Hanna

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Susan Doupé/William Toft

Emily M. Bender, left, and Alex Hanna.

Emily M. Bender, left, and Alex Hanna.

Not that long ago, AI seemed like science fiction. Now it’s everywhere. Co-authors Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna will discuss their new book The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want with Madison’s own Emily Mills. We’re particularly interested in what they have to say about AI possibly putting authors and artists out of business. Bender, a linguistics professor at the University of Washington, and Hanna, the director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute and a lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley, have advice on how to resist big tech’s AI onslaught.

media release: A Room of One's Own is delighted to welcome authors Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna to our store, in celebration of their new release The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want. They will be joined, in conversation, with Emily Mills. 

This is an In-Person Event at A Room of One's Own Bookstore.

About the Book

Is artificial intelligence going to take over the world? Have big tech scientists created an artificial lifeform that can think on its own? Is it going to put authors, artists, and others out of business? Are we about to enter an age where computers are better than humans at everything?

The answer to these questions, linguist Emily M. Bender and sociologist Alex Hanna make clear, is “no,” “they wish,” “LOL,” and “definitely not.” This kind of thinking is a symptom of a phenomenon known as “AI hype.” Hype looks and smells fishy: It twists words and helps the rich get richer by justifying data theft, motivating surveillance capitalism, and devaluing human creativity in order to replace meaningful work with jobs that treat people like machines. In The AI Con, Bender and Hanna offer a sharp, witty, and wide-ranging take-down of AI hype across its many forms.

Bender and Hanna show you how to spot AI hype, how to deconstruct it, and how to expose the power grabs it aims to hide. Armed with these tools, you will be prepared to push back against AI hype at work, as a consumer in the marketplace, as a skeptical newsreader, and as a citizen holding policymakers to account. Together, Bender and Hanna expose AI hype for what it is: a mask for Big Tech’s drive for profit, with little concern for who it affects.

Dr. Emily M. Bender is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington where she is also the Faculty Director of the Computational Linguistics Master of Science program and affiliate faculty in the School of Computer Science and Engineering and the Information School. In 2023, she was included in the inaugural Time 100 list of the most influential people in AI. She is frequently consulted by policymakers, from municipal officials to the federal government to the United Nations, for insight into how to understand so-called AI technologies.

Dr. Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and a Lecturer in the School of Information at the University of California Berkeley. She is an outspoken critic of the tech industry, a proponent of community-based uses of technology, and a highly sought-after speaker and expert who has been featured across the media, including articles in the Washington Post, Financial Times, The Atlantic, and Time.

Emily Mills is a Madison-based writer, reader, and musician. They previously served as Editor of Our Lives, Wisconsin's only LGBTQ+ media outlet, and as an opinion columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Their work has covered a range of topics, from politics to culture to the environment. You can find Emily's byline here and there, and via their newsletter, Grist From the Mills