The AI Con

Is artificial intelligence going to take over the world? Have big tech scientists created an artificial lifeform that can think on its own? Are we about to enter an age where computers are better than humans at everything? The answer to these questions is 'no', 'they wish', 'LOL', and 'definitely not'. In The AI Con, the renowned AI insiders-turned-critics Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, offer a sharp, witty, and wide-ranging take-down of AI hype across all its forms, exposing it for what it really is: a mask for data theft, surveillance capitalism, and the devaluing of human creativity in order to replace meaningful work with jobs that treat people like machines. As well as laying bare the truth about large language models and the fundamental prejudices baked into them, they also show how we are in danger of becoming dependent on these technologies, which can never replace human skills but will destroy good work. They show that both the doom-mongering apocalyptic and utopian singularity scenarios peddled by the hype men are a cover for a campaign for deregulation. And they equip the reader with a toolkit for spotting AI hype in the world and set out the key principles for regulation that we need: automation should be task-specific and always optional; data rights should be protected; and the AI itself should be labelled for what it is. While most existing books celebrate the emergence of such powerful systems, The AI Con does something more important: it reveals that under cover of its dangerous misnomer, 'artificial intelligence' is the tech companies' ploy to become the robber barons of the 21st century.