Episode 32: A Flood of AI Hell, April 29 2024

AI Hell froze over this winter and now a flood of meltwater threatens to drown Alex and Emily. Armed with raincoats and a hastily-written sea shanty*, they tour the realms, from spills of synthetic information, to the special corner reserved for ShotSpotter.

**Lyrics & video on Peertube (bit.ly/4e5LGjZ).

*Surveillance:*
• Public kiosks slurp phone data (bit.ly/3VaDZRM)
• Workplace surveillance (bit.ly/3Vc2GgY)
• Surveillance by bathroom mirror (bit.ly/3UKZt6k)
• Stalking-as-a-service (bit.ly/4avHzKT)
• Cops tap everyone else's videos (wapo.st/3yE4FBA)
• Facial recognition at the doctor's office (bit.ly/3WUNrKE)
*Synthetic information spills:*
• Amazon products called “I cannot fulfill that request” (bit.ly/3wO3Plo)
• AI-generated obituaries (bit.ly/3QZ9HiG)
• X's Grok treats Twitter trends as news (bit.ly/3Ved1Jj)
• Touch the button. Touch it. (bit.ly/4arZCSh)
• Meta’s chatbot enters private discussions (bit.ly/3wKhNoo)
• WHO chatbot makes up medical info (bloom.bg/4bqJJwL)
*Toxic wish fulfillment:*
• Fake photos of real memories (bit.ly/4bMHR0N)
*ShotSpotter:*
• ShotSpotter adds surveillance to the over-policed (bit.ly/4dJq24C)
• Chicago ending ShotSpotter contract (bit.ly/4dNEHf7)
• But they're listening anyway (bit.ly/4dR7Mq4)
*Selling your data:*
• Reddit sells user data (bloom.bg/4awueBV)
• Meta sharing user DMs with Netflix (bit.ly/3UVVmo2)
• Scraping Discord (bit.ly/3KxZIgJ)
*AI is always people:*
• Amazon Fresh (bit.ly/3VaUjC3)
• 3D art (bit.ly/3wIxGM5)
• George Carlin impressions (bit.ly/3WQboTa)
• The people behind image selection (bit.ly/3VbICv0)
*TESCREAL corporate capture:*
• Biden worried about AI because of "Mission: Impossible" (bit.ly/4bMI6ZL)
• Feds appoint AI doomer to run US AI safety institute (bit.ly/3QXWsyG)
• Altman & friends will serve on AI safety board (on.wsj.com/3QV4vw9)
*Accountability:*
• FTC denies facial recognition for age estimation (bit.ly/4btYX40)
• SEC goes after misleading claims (bit.ly/4bQXDIm)
• Uber Eats courier wins payout over ‘racist’ facial recognition app (bit.ly/4dOPc1T)
Check out future streams on Twitch (twitch.tv/dair_institute). Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see (thecon.ai/submit-fresh-ai-hell).
Find our book The AI Con here (bit.ly/3OZ9PNx), and MAIHT3k merch here (store.dair-institute.org/category/mystery-ai-h…).
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Emily
• Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social (bit.ly/3VpFk7H)
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender (bit.ly/3yJ6g9z)
Alex
• Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social (bit.ly/4c05L9h)
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex (bit.ly/3X4poc1)
• Twitter: @alexhanna (bit.ly/3V6NuQM)
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park (naomipleasurepark.com).
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.