Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

The people who make automated translation possible are often low-paid gig workers. Usually, they don't even know who they're really working for — and it might be the US military. Reporter Niamh McIntyre joins Alex and Emily to dissect how one data labeling company presents its work, based her investigation into the experiences of East African employees.
Niamh McIntyre is a senior reporter at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) in London, covering AI, labor, and surveillance tech. She was 2023 AI Accountability Fellow at the Pulitzer Center, and prior to joining TBIJ, spent four years as a data journalist at The Guardian.
Find tickets to our April 30th live show here!
References:
Appen blog post on "Why AI Must be Ethical and Responsible"
Also referenced:
"Gig workers in Africa have been helping the US military. They had no idea"
DAIR's Data Workers' Inquiry
Fresh AI Hell:
Marc Andreessen says "there is no inner self"
Rest of World call for stories on labor and tech
Detrans.AI wants you to talk to fake detransitioners
Melania proposes catwalking robot as replacement for teachers
Microsoft sidelines Mustafa Suleyman
Andrej Karpathy cooked by LLM usage
"Sorry AI, you can't call yourself a nurse"
Volunteer fire department rejects $250,000 Google donation
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch 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.

We knew that the energy demands of data centers were preventing dirty energy sources from being sunsetted.  Now hyperscalers are reaching even further, resurrecting Pennsylvania's infamous Three Mile Island. Emily and Alex are joined by Maia Woluchem and Dr. Livia Garofalo, who have researched the impacts of data center construction across PA.
Maia Woluchem and Livia Garofalo are with the Trustworthy Infrastructures program at Data & Society. Their latest article, "Pennsylvania is perfect," is part of the New Internationalist's AI–themed issue.
References:
Three Mile Island press release
Sen. McCormick on AI investments in PA
McCormick's wife Meta president
Fresh AI Hell:
Amazon data center targeted by Iran
"AI-powered bombing quicker than 'speed of thought'"
Meta's AI glasses use human reviewers (See also: original Swedish reporting)
Bernie posts video with Yudkowsky
Grammarly offers fake advice as if from real writers
Google data center water estimates
"AI Doesn't Reduce Work—It Intensifies It"
High schooler questions surveillance
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch 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.

Data centers are overburdening the planet, so tech billionaires have a new scheme — put 'em in space! Astrophysicist Dr. Adam Becker joins Alex and Emily to launch this plan into the sun. We unpack all the reasons that this hilariously terrible idea will never be viable outside of sci-fi-villain fantasies.
Dr. Adam Becker is the author of More Everything Forever, a book about the terrible plans that tech billionaires have for the future and why they don’t work. Keep an eye out for his new podcast, Dreaming Against the Machine, which is launching soon.
References:
SpaceX press release on "space-based AI"
"How data centres in space sustainably enable the AI revolution"
Also referenced:
Nvidia blog post on data centers in space
Starcloud white paper
Fresh AI Hell:
Judge rules chatbots can't offer attorney-client privilege
"RFK Jr's Nutrition Chatbot Recommends Best Foods to Insert Into Your Rectum"
AI company seeks writer who doesn't use LLMs
Altman likens AI energy use to human nutritional needs
SXSW promoting panel with "AI speaker"
The agent-erati just want servants
News editor mad that journalism students don't want to use AI
Simple rules for fighting fascist tech
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch 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.

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.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch 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.

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.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch 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.