Three Years of Ridicule as Praxis, 2025.09.19

It's Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000's third birthday! To celebrate, Emily and Alex respond to listener questions about the show, and reflect on the past and future of AI hype. Topics range from how to talk to your kids about LLMs, to what the MAIHT3k birthday cake looks like.

Artifacts referenced:
AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark (arxiv.org/abs/2111.15366)
Data and its (dis)contents (arxiv.org/abs/2012.05345)
Stochastic Parrots Day (dair-institute.org/stochastic-parrots-day)
Dr. Casey Fiesler on TikTok (tiktok.com/@professorcasey)
Dr. Nicole Holliday on TikTok (tiktok.com/@mixedlinguist)
Alex and Emily’s media appearances about The AI Con (thecon.ai/news)
Emily and Alex on The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan (shows.acast.com/the-data-fix/episodes/con-with…)
Emily’s interview with Dr. Carl Rhodes (pod.link/1760672339/episode/NTlkODhlZjYtNWUzNC…)
Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire (bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/stinking-rich)
October 21st event for The AI Con (washington.edu/lectures/events/the-ai-con-book…)
FAccT AI Workers’ Inquiry Panel (peertube.dair-institute.org/w/q4WbXsModA21S1Ri…)
Emily’s presentation at UNESCO Digital Learning Week (youtube.com/live/l-OWi6VoMng?t=4250s) — Paper version on pp.41-45 here (unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000395236)
A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In. (nytimes.com/2025/08/26/technology/chatgpt-open…)
Fresh AI Hell:
Meet the Robot Using AI to Ink Your Next Tattoo (archive.ph/Eq3Hw)
Medicare Will Start Paying AI Companies a Share of Any Claims They Automatically Reject (futurism.com/medicare-pay-ai-companies)
Taco Bell AI drive-through (bsky.app/profile/estherschindler.bsky.social/p…)
Can AI doulas improve maternal health? (fastcompany.com/91400254/can-ai-doulas-help-im…)
Countries are struggling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers (restofworld.org/2025/ai-energy-supply-data-cen…)
Bluesky post about Business Insider (bsky.app/profile/oliverdarcy.bsky.social/post/…)
OpenAI has reportedly misjudged its cash burn by $80 billion (the-decoder.com/openai-has-reportedly-misjudge…)
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.