The AI Con

How To Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want

Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

The Bodley Head Ltd
20 May 2025

Society & culture: general; Impact of science & technology on society; Technology: general issues; Artificial intelligence

Two of the world's best-known AI insiders-turned-critics expose the lies and hype surrounding AI

A smart, incisive take-down of the bogus claims being made about so-called 'artificial intelligence', exposing the real harm these technologies do to our jobs, health, society and environment, who stands to gain from them, and how to fight back.

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, even creative ones, like doctors, teachers and care-workers? 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 so they can replace meaningful work with jobs that treat people like machines. Meanwhile, across healthcare, education, media, government and law-enforcement, 'AI' products are already being introduced that are unreliable, ineffective, unjust and dangerous.

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.

By: Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna
Imprint: The Bodley Head Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 350g
ISBN: 9781847928627
ISBN 10: 1847928625
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 20 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Emily Bender (Author) 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. She is a leading voice in criticizing AI hype, and author of the touchstone 'Stochastic Parrots' paper that debunks the myth that large language models are or could ever be intelligent, which has been cited over 2500 times and is taught in AI curricula around the world. She has made over 150 media appearances across the top international news outlets and in 2023 was included in the inaugural TIME100 AI list of most influential people in AI. @emilymbender Alex Hanna (Author) 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. Formerly a senior research scientist on Google's Ethical AI team, her resignation letter from Google has over 77,000 views. 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. She has been included as part of FastCompany's 'Queer 50' and Go Magazine's 'Women We Love' lists. @alexhanna

Reviews for The AI Con: How To Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want

Readable and engaging, yet deeply authoritative and informed, The AI Con peels off the layers of hype to reveal the truth of how the current AI models work and why the authors believe that they offer us nothing in return for the theft of our ideas and our sovereign privacy, while further enriching and empowering the tech giants who feast from our data -- STEPHEN FRY