The AI Con - BoundCovers

6x9in, 288 pages

English language

Published 2025 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-341856-1

(1 review)

A smart, incisive look at the technologies sold as artificial intelligence, the drawbacks and pitfalls of technology sold under this banner, and why it’s crucial to recognize the many ways in which AI hype covers for a small set of power-hungry actors at work and in the world.

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 …

A smart, incisive look at the technologies sold as artificial intelligence, the drawbacks and pitfalls of technology sold under this banner, and why it’s crucial to recognize the many ways in which AI hype covers for a small set of power-hungry actors at work and in the world.

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.

4 editions

Dreamweaver reviewed The AI Con by Emily M. Bender

None

3 stars

I was so excited to read this book. In a sea of people singing the praises of "AI", Emily Bender was a breath of fresh air when I came across her on a podcast some months ago, echoing my sentiments.

When I picked up this book, I was looking for language and stories to have the difficult conversations about "AI" and how I don't believe it to be the wonderful godsend everyone around me seems to think it is.

Thankfully, I did get some of that. I have started to have those conversations. The observation in the intro that "AI" is simply a marketing umbrella term covering many different types of automation has been an especially useful way to frame those conversations.

But gosh, the book could have been so much better. It was really hard for me to understand and absorb. I suspect that paragraphs with more than one …

I was so excited to read this book. In a sea of people singing the praises of "AI", Emily Bender was a breath of fresh air when I came across her on a podcast some months ago, echoing my sentiments.

When I picked up this book, I was looking for language and stories to have the difficult conversations about "AI" and how I don't believe it to be the wonderful godsend everyone around me seems to think it is.

Thankfully, I did get some of that. I have started to have those conversations. The observation in the intro that "AI" is simply a marketing umbrella term covering many different types of automation has been an especially useful way to frame those conversations.

But gosh, the book could have been so much better. It was really hard for me to understand and absorb. I suspect that paragraphs with more than one main idea contributed to that, as well as a lack of organisation of thoughts into clear themes. Others have mentioned that it'd be improved with more headings and sub-headings, and I agree. I feel like the rage against the machine interfered with clear articulation of thoughts.

It's worth reading, especially if, like me, you feel like a terribly lonely voice shouting into the clamor. It gives a good starting point. But I will need to read more widely to get the outcome I was after: an ability to clearly articulate the harms that "AI" is causing in the present, and the lack of useful outcomes that may justify those harms.

A mild disappointment.