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The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want by Emily M. Bender & Alex Hanna evaluates artificial intelligence (AI) as an entity shaped socially, economically, and politically -- not merely as a technology. Rather than accepting the narrative currently being told about AI by its most prominent proponents, Bender and Hanna ask what it means to consider AI from the perspectives of power, labor, data, institutional responsibility and who will benefit most from new technologies. I think that one of the book's greatest contributions is demonstrating how organizations may make decisions based on hype about AI before sufficient evidence has developed about whether those capabilities exist. At times, however, Bender and Hanna's strong critique of the current state of AI hype can obscure significant variations in different types of AI application, and require additional empirical study to test their recommendations across institutions.
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References
Bender, E. M., & Hanna, A. (2025). The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want. Harper.
Bender, E. M., Gebru, T., McMillan-Major, A., & Shmitchell, S. (2021). On the dangers of stochastic parrots: Can language models be too big? Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 610–623. https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445922
Markelius, A., Wright, C., Kuiper, J., Delille, N., & Kuo, Y.-T. (2024). The mechanisms of AI hype and its planetary and social costs. AI and Ethics, 4(3), 727–742. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-024-00461-2
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Comments
6The writing’s sharp, grounded, and honestly kind of refreshing for anyone tired of buzzword bingo. If you want to understand AI without the noise, this is it. Karnav just made the subject feel human again.
Excellent book review, Karnav! 👏 Your review of The AI Con shows thoughtful understanding of the book’s deeper message about AI, power, society, and responsibility. I really appreciate the way you’ve highlighted both the strengths and limitations of the authors’ arguments. A mature, insightful, and well-articulated review—keep reading, thinking, and sharing your perspectives
Maza aagaya
Wow, Such a great review. Reading this review just after reading the book made me feel heard!. Bravo young gentlemen!.
A very insightful and well-balanced review. I really liked how it looks beyond the hype around AI and focuses on the human, social, and institutional dimensions of technology. The discussion of both the strengths and limitations of the book makes the review especially thoughtful. Excellent work!
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such nice explanation. awe inspiring