AI boosters and the US military are engaged in a lethal love affair. Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein joins Emily and Alex to discuss how glitchy technology supports global imperialism — and vice versa. Plus, we explore which Dr. Strangelove characters are currently running the US war machine.

Naomi Klein is a columnist for The Guardian and the international bestselling author of nine books published in over 35 languages. Her new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World, written with Astra Taylor, will be published in September 2026.

References:

• War Department press release on GenAI.mil
• Old-school racism from Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey
• "How artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of war"

Previous episodes referenced:

• Episode 61: Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and Kate Brennan)
• Episode 50: Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara Kneese)

Fresh AI Hell:

• "Cops Forced to Explain Why AI Generated Police Report Claimed Officer Transformed Into Frog"
• "Amazon outbids WA utility for one of nation's largest solar projects"
• "AI data centers are forcing dirty 'peaker' power plants back into service"
• "Mamdani Targets 'Unusable' AI Chatbot for Termination"

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

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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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Move over Dr. Google, Dr. ChatGPT is here, and it's even worse as a medical intervention! Alex and Emily scrub in to slice up some harmful new nonsense in the world of "AI" for medicine. What's the cure for an expensive and inaccessible health care system? One thing's for sure — it's not AI hype.

References:

• "Stop Worrying, and Let A.I. Help Save Your Life"
• "Introducing ChatGPT Health"

Also referenced:

• "No, I don't want an AI scribe to write my pulmonologist’s note"
• "The Danger of Intimate Algorithms"
• MAIHT3k Episode 62: The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie Harrison Dupré)

Fresh AI Hell:

• Waymo files vague NHTSA report on crash that killed KitKat (See also: NHTSA Standing General Order on Crash Reporting)
• "Medical Schools Use AI Patients to Help With Clinical Training"
• "What If Your Coffee Mug Knew Your Next Move? AI Researchers Made It Happen"
• "Monkeys are on the loose in St. Louis and AI is complicating efforts to capture them"
• Using LLMs to "infer race, ethnicity"
• Tech CEOs hate ridicule as praxis!

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

Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website!

Find our book, The AI Con, here.

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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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

This is a special episode, and it’s not like our usual livestream recordings. Instead, our producer Ozzy dug through the Fresh AI Hell archives to create a supercut of Alex's improvised transitions. She's made up dozens of skits and songs about the demons of AI Hell, based on weekly prompts from Emily and listeners. Finally, hear all the lore together in one place!

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

Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website!

Find our book, The AI Con, here.

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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

For our last recording of 2025, Emily and Alex take on a TIME article naming the "architects of AI" as their person of the year. We also look back at the year in AI nonsense, and share findings from our Fresh AI Hell Wrapped. Happy Hype-y New Year!

References:

• "The Architects of AI Are TIME's 2025 Person of the Year"
• Stanford AI Index Report

Also referenced:

• Original "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photo
• "The Number of People Using AI at Work Is Suddenly Falling"

Fresh AI Hell:

• Fresh AI Hell, Wrapped
• Adobe for Education outputs sexualized images
• "'Low Tech ChatGPT' on physical paper"
• "Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications that trained neural networks on 'bonkers' dataset"
• Hologram lecturers and robot sandwich-makers
• "'ChatGPT for Doctors' Startup Doubles Valuation to $12 Billion as Revenue Surges"
• No more ideas. Need AIdeas!
• "For the First Time, AI Analyzes Language as Well as a Human Expert"
• "Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man’s Meta Smart Glasses on Subway"

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

Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website!

Find our book, The AI Con, here.

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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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

There's a new definition of artificial general intelligence in town, and unsurprisingly... it's bad! Alex and Emily rip up the tissue-paper-thin premises behind this latest attempt to define "intelligence." Plus, we discover that AI hypers love using logos that look like buttholes.

References:

• "A Definition of AGI" landing page and paper-shaped object

Fresh AI Hell:

• "What If Sea Monkeys Constantly, Sometimes Dangerously, Bullshitted People"
• Doctronic, the "AI doctor"
• NIST reports companies cheat on "AI" evaluations
• "Microsoft Lowers Sales Staff's Growth Targets For Newer AI Software"
• "PEN Guild wins landmark arbitration on AI protections"
• "AI" assistant pop-up whack-a-mole

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

Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website!

Find our book, The AI Con, here.

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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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Tech leaders are pushing the idea that automation can strengthen democracy — but as usual, their bold suggestions are based on castles made of sand. Alex and Emily tear down some flimsy arguments for AI governance, exposing their incorrect assumptions about the democratic process.

References:

• "This Is No Way to Rule a Country"
• "Four ways AI is being used to strengthen democracies worldwide"

Also referenced:

• Collective Intelligence Project surveys
• Interview with CalMatters CEO

Fresh AI Hell:

• Amazon introduces AI translation for Kindle authors
• Nature op ed recommends AI versions of Einstein, Bohr, and Feynman
• An AI Podcasting Machine Is Churning Out 3,000 Episodes a Week
• AI dating café to open in New York
• Recipe slop flooding social media
• AI slop about Autism published in Nature
• Upwork ad for fixing LLM editorial
• "Hundreds of Chicago residents sign petition to pause robot delivery pilot program over safety concerns"

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

Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website!

Find our book, The AI Con, here.

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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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Last month, Senate Democrats warned that "Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade." Ironically, they used ChatGPT to come to that conclusion. DAIR Research Associate Sophie Song joins us to unpack the issues when self-professed worker advocates use chatbots for "research."

Sophie Song is a researcher, organizer, and advocate working at the intersection of tech and social justice. They’re a research associate at DAIR, where they're working with Alex on building the Luddite Lab Resource Hub.

References:

• Senate report: AI and Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade
• Senator Sanders' AI Report Ignores the Data on AI and Inequality

Also referenced:

• MAIHT3k Episode 25: An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your Job
• Humlum paper: Large Language Models, Small Labor Market Effects
• Emily's blog post: Scholarship should be open, inclusive and slow

Fresh AI Hell:

• Tech companies compelling vibe coding
• arXiv is overwhelmed by LLM slop
• 'Godfather of AI' says tech giants can't profit from their astronomical investments unless human labor is replaced
• If you want to satiate AI’s hunger for power, Google suggests going to space
• AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here
• Gen AI campaign against ranked choice voting
• Chaser: Workplace AI Implementation Bingo

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

Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website!

Find our book, The AI Con, here.

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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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

It's been six months since our last all-Hell episode! In honor of Halloween season, we take a long journey into the very scary Fresh AI Hell mines. Topics include terrifying uses of AI in education, scientific research, and politics — plus, some delicious palate cleansers along the way.

AI bubble: bigger than dot-com bust?

No one wants to pay for ChatGPT

Meta lays off 600 from AI unit

AI data centers: an even bigger disaster than we thought

Public universities anticipate data center-driven power outages

Chaser: Deloitte has to pay back Albanese government after using AI in report

"AI" schools are "dead classrooms"

Fake sources in "ethical AI" education report

Parents letting kids play with AI

Startup sells 'synthetic influencers'

AI-powered textbooks fail to make the grade

Chaser: "High-reliability" AI slop

Nature offers "AI-powered research assistant"

AI bots wrote all papers at this conference

"AI" reviewing at AAAI

AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and POC

Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT

Chaser: Microsoft blocks Israel's use of its technology

German initiative uses "AI" for voter education

Police gunshot detection mics will listen for human voices

SF's AI chatbot for RV dwellers

Cuomo campaign posts racist AI slop

DHS Ordered OpenAI To Share User Data

Chaser: LA County moves to limit license plate tracking

A new form of eugenics

"AI Superintelligence" prohibition letter

Emad Mostaque's LLM blurbs

Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery

Chaser:

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

Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website!

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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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

So-called AI tools are increasingly infiltrating newsrooms, particularly when it comes to data analysis. DAIR writer-in-residence Decca Muldowney joins us to discuss the need for journalists to distinguish between "AI" and reliable, verifiable research methods.

Decca Muldowney is a journalist and writer who was our fact checker for The AI Con. She's also a writer-in-residence and web editor at the Distributed AI Research Institute.

References:

• An early AI pioneer shares how the "vibe coding" revolution could reshape data journalism
• America's top companies keep talking about AI — but can't explain the upsides
• Analysis: 96.2% of Climate News Stories Don't Cover Animal Agriculture as a Pollution Source

Fresh AI Hell:

• Teen Sues Maker of Fake-Nude Software
• ChatGPT's Hail Mary: Chatbots You Can Fuck
• GitLaw announces "Vibe Lawyering"
• Salesforce Offers Its Services to Boost Trump’s Immigration Force
• Towns are saying no to AI data centers. One got sued over it.
• Rent a Cyber Friend will pay you to talk to strangers online
• The Wire's David Simon is over it

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

Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website!

Find our book, The AI Con, here.

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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

Powerful AI boosters claim to love science fiction novels, but why do they always seem to take the wrong lessons from them? Reporter and writer Reo Eveleth joins us to discuss the ways tech leaders misuse storytelling, and how we can avoid their visions to imagine better futures.

Reo Eveleth is a reporter, writer, and co-founder of COYOTE Media Collective. They created the hit independent show Flash Forward, which they also turned into a book of the same name. Reo’s work has been nominated for a Peabody, an Emmy, and an Eisner Award.

References:

• Tech Billionaires Need to Stop Trying to Make the Science Fiction They Grew Up on Real
• How New Science Fiction Could Help Us Improve AI

Also Referenced:

• Statement from the listed authors of Stochastic Parrots on the “AI pause” letter

Fresh AI Hell:

• Stop Worrying About AI’s Return on Investment
• The most radical act of feminism? Using AI
• Leader of Albania Pelted With Trash for Appointing AI-Powered Minister to Cabinet
• The Human Cost of Every ChatGPT Query: Inside the Cobalt Mines That Power AI
• Altman on "AGI" and quantum gravity
• OK Go - Impulse Purchase

Correction: We misstated Lee Ostertag's name during the livestream for this episode. We apologize for the error!

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

Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website!

Find our book, The AI Con, here.

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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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.

It's Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000's third birthday! To celebrate, Emily and Alex respond to listener questions about the show, and reflect on the past and future of AI hype. Topics range from how to talk to your kids about LLMs, to what the MAIHT3k birthday cake looks like.

Artifacts referenced:

AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark

Data and its (dis)contents

Stochastic Parrots Day

Dr. Casey Fiesler on TikTok

Dr. Nicole Holliday on TikTok

Alex and Emily’s media appearances about The AI Con

Emily and Alex on The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

Emily’s interview with Dr. Carl Rhodes

Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire

October 21st event for The AI Con

FAccT AI Workers’ Inquiry Panel

Emily’s presentation at UNESCO Digital Learning Week — Paper version on pp.41-45 here

A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In.

Fresh AI Hell:

Meet the Robot Using AI to Ink Your Next Tattoo

Medicare Will Start Paying AI Companies a Share of Any Claims They Automatically Reject

Taco Bell AI drive-through

Can AI doulas improve maternal health?

Countries are struggling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers

Bluesky post about Business Insider

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

Our merch store is now live on the DAIR website!

Find our book, The AI Con, here.

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 Ozzy Llinas Goodman.