Lecture: The AI Con with Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna

Is artificial intelligence on the brink of world domination? Have tech giants created autonomous thinking machines? Will AI render authors, artists, and other creatives obsolete? Are we entering an era where computers surpass humans in every way?

According to linguist Emily M. Bender and sociologist Alex Hanna, the answers to these questions are clear: no, they wish, LOL, and definitely not. What fuels these dramatic predictions is a phenomenon known as AI hype—a misleading narrative that distorts reality to serve corporate interests. Hype doesn’t just exaggerate; it justifies data exploitation, accelerates surveillance capitalism, and undermines human creativity by reducing skilled work to mechanical tasks.

Bender and Hanna provide essential tools to identify AI hype, break it down, and expose the underlying power plays it seeks to conceal.

Alex Hanna

Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR)

Alex Hanna is the Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and a sociologist whose work explores the data behind computational technologies and its role in deepening racial, gender, and class inequalities. She also studies social movements, focusing on anti-racist campus protests in the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Hanna holds degrees in computer science, mathematics, and sociology from Purdue University and earned her MS and PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She is the co-author of The AI Con (Harper, 2025), a critical examination of artificial intelligence and the hype surrounding it. Alongside linguist Emily M. Bender, she co-hosts Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, a lively, incisive series on Twitch and podcast platforms that deconstructs AI industry narratives.

Dr. Hanna’s research has been published in top-tier social science journals, including Mobilization, American Behavioral Scientist, and Big Data & Society, as well as leading computer science conferences such as CSCW, FAccT, and NeurIPS. She serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies and is an advisory board member for the Human Rights Data Analysis Group.

Recognized for her contributions, Dr. Hanna has received the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s Forward Award, been named to FastCompany’s Queer 50 list (2021, 2024), and featured on Business Insider’s AI Power List. She was also highlighted in the Cal Academy of Sciences New Science exhibit, which celebrates queer and trans scientists of color.