Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna

eBook, ePUB

The AI Con (eBook, ePUB)

How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want

Beschreibung

'The blizzard of excitement, misinformation and pure hype around AI has driven many of us to want an honest guide. If, like me, you're one of those many, you need to read this book' BRIAN ENO

Is AI going to take over the world? Have scientists created an artificial lifeform that can think on its own? Is it going to replace all our jobs? Are we about to enter an age where computers are better than humans at everything?

The answers to these questions, as the expert authors of The AI Con make clear, are 'no', 'they wish', 'LOL', and 'definitely not'. In fact, these fears are all symptoms of the hype being used by tech corporations to justify data theft, motivate surveillance capitalism, and devalue human creativity.

Packed with real-world examples, pithy arguments and expert insights, The AI Con arms you to spot AI hype in all its guises, expose the exploitation and power-grabs it aims to hide, and push back against it at work and in your daily life.

'A book to inoculate your mind against Big Tech's AI utopian hype' Yanis Varoufakis

'Hanna and Bender provide the clearest picture yet of what AI is, what it is not, and why none of us need to accept it' Timnit Gebru

'A powerful antidote. The authors show that these technologies will serve to deepen existing inequalities, and further 'enshittify' life and work for the vast majority of people' Grace Blakeley

'Truly eye-opening. An indispensable "field manual" for those who want to fight for a more humane economy and a better society' Ha-Joon Chang

'Fascinating and thought-provoking' Johann Hari

'A must-read' Aleks Krotoski

Technische Details

• Geräte: eReader
• mit Kopierschutz
• Größe: 1.62MB

Barrierefreiheit

• Text-to-Speech
• E-Mail des Verlags für Barrierefreiheitsfragen: [e-mail]
• Link zur Verlagsseite mit Barrierefreiheitsinformationen: https://www.penguin.co.uk/accessibility
• URL der zertifizierenden Organisation: https://daisy.github.io/ace
• Als barrierefrei zertifiziert durch genannte Organisation: Penguin Random House UK
• Entspricht WCAG Level AA Standards
• Entspricht WCAG 2.2 Standards
• Alle Inhalte über Screenreader oder taktile Geräte zugänglich
• Funktion von Links und Steuerelementen klar erkennbar
• Sehr hoher Kontrast zwischen Text und Hintergrund (min. 7 =>1)
• Alle Texte können hinsichtlich Größe, Schriftart und Farbe angepasst werden
• Grundlegende Landmark-Navigation für einfache Orientierung
• ARIA-Rollen für verbesserte strukturelle Navigation
• Navigation über vor-/zurück-Elemente ohne Inhaltsverzeichnis
• Hoher Kontrast zwischen Text und Hintergrund (min. 4.5 =>1)
• Inhalte verständlich ohne Farbwahrnehmung
• Sprache des Textes für Text-to-Speech optimiert
• Seitennummerierung folgt dem gedruckten Werk
• Text und Medien in logischer Lesereihenfolge angeordnet
• Navigierbares Inhaltsverzeichnis für direkten Zugriff auf Text und Medien
• Keine Einschränkung der Vorlesefunktionen, außer bei spezifischen Ausnahmen
• Entspricht EPUB Accessibility Specification 1.1

Autor

Emily M. Bender (Author)
Dr Emily M. Bender is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington. Her work, including the touchstone 'Stochastic Parrots' paper, brings a linguistic perspective to how large language models work and why the illusion they produce is so compelling. In 2023 she was included in the inaugural TIME100 AI list of most influential people in AI.

Alex Hanna (Author)
Dr Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and a former senior research scientist on Google's Ethical AI team. She is an outspoken critic of the tech industry and a proponent of community-based uses of technology.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Vintage Publishing
• Seitenzahl: 288
• Erscheinungstermin: 22. Mai 2025
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781529949896
• Artikelnr.: 72249037

Rezensionen

"With their expansive, interdisciplinary expertise, Bender and Hanna write with absolute authority and unapologetic clarity about all the ways AI companies wield and weaponize language-in their marketing hype and as training data for their monstrous AI models-to create a less rigorous, less verifiable, more unequal, and more BS-filled world. Despite the depressing nature of their subject, Bender and Hanna narrate it with incredible wit and verve...Come for the piercing observations; leave with the tools to slice your way through the absurdist narratives that prop up the AI industry and to hold it accountable." - Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI

"A powerful and timely deep dive into what the AI hype cycle

is REALLY about, why it's bound to crash, and what we can all do to protect ourselves from it. An absolute must-read!" - Karla Ortiz, artist and artist activist

"The AI Con is a must-read...Drs. Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender cut through the dizzying hype to provide the clearest picture yet of what AI is, what it is not, and why none of us need to accept it being shoved down our throats. Their expertise and independence from the tech companies claiming to have created what the CEO of OpenAI calls 'magic intelligence in the sky,' makes them two of the few voices writing on this topic motivated by the public's interests rather than their personal gains." - Timnit Gebru, Founder and Executive Director at The Distributed AI Research Institute

"In The AI Con, Bender and Hanna deliver a hard-hitting, no-nonsense takedown of the so-called 'artificial intelligence revolution.' Far from the sci-fi fantasy of machines thinking for themselves, this book shows how tech giants are using AI as a cover for their real agenda: data exploitation, surveillance, and a race to replace human labor with soulless automation. With irreverence and razor-sharp analysis, Bender and Hanna dismantle the hype and arm readers with the tools to see through the corporate doublespeak. This isn't just about debunking myths-it's about reclaiming control over the future that's being sold to us." - Ruha Benjamin, author of Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want

"If you've been confused and bedazzled by all the chatter about AI, this book will help you make sense of all of it. Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna break down all the science-fictional flights of fancy, and painstakingly reveal the troubling reality that lies beneath. The AI Con is required reading for anyone who wants to survive the twenty-first century." - Charlie Jane Anders, author of Victories Greater Than Death

"In this AI hype era, Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna are here to deliver the well-informed debunking our algorithm overlords deserve." - Annalee Newitz, bestselling author of Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind and Autonomous

"The blizzard of excitement, misinformation and pure hype around AI has driven many of us to want an honest guide to both its promises and its limitations as well as its bizarre history. If, like me, you're one of those many, you need to read this book. It's clear, objective and comprehensible. It's essential reading." - Brian Eno

"A refreshingly contrarian take on AI and the clouds of hyperbole surrounding it." - Kirkus Reviews

"The AI Con takes the thunder out of the dark cloud in our technological future. I am so grateful for the reality check, in Emily's and Alex's inimitable style. A must-read for those who don't want to believe the hype." - Aleks Krotoski, presenter of The Digital Human

"A powerful antidote to the AI hype that dominates tech writing today. The authors show that the development of modern labour saving technologies is not neutral. Instead, these technologies will serve to deepen existing inequalities, and further 'enshittify' life and work for the vast majority of people." - Grace Blakeley, author of Vulture Capitalism

"A book to inoculate your mind against Big Tech's AI utopian hype and the resulting dystopian dread." - Yanis Varoufakis, economist

"Artificial intelligence is going to reshape our economy and society. And we'd all better get used to it, right? Wrong, say the authors of this incredible book. This is a truly eye-opening book that will be an indispensable 'field manual' for those who want to fight for a more humane economy and a better society." - Ha-Joon Chang, author of Economics: The User's Guide and Edible Economics

"A fascinating and thought-provoking analysis of one of the most charged debates in the world." - Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus

"The industry known as AI is fifty pounds of BS in a ten-pound bag, but politicians, the press, and CEOs are falling for it. Into the breach step Bender and Hanna...speaking truth about the most dangerous tech scam of our lifetime. The big lie of AI is that statistical processes can replace humans in jobs where a human touch is essential...There may be constructive use cases of 'extruded text' in the future, but accelerated climate change, loss of copyrights and privacy, increased unemployment, and a wide range of health problems are happening now and will only get worse." - Roger McNamee, New York Times bestselling author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe

"The authors drive home the troubling ways in which [AI] technology is transforming society. AI skeptics will find plenty of fodder for their critique." - Publishers Weekly