The AI Con: Fighting Big Tech's Hype and Its Harms

Deconstructing AI Hype

• 💡 AI is a marketing term, not a coherent technology, often used to inflate simple automated systems.
• 🎯 Large Language Models (LLMs) are statistical text generators, not intelligent entities with understanding or communicative intent.
• 🔑 The "AI Con" is a parlor trick that leverages human tendency to attribute mind to text, masking profit motives.

The Costs of AI

• ⚠️ AI training and use incur significant environmental costs, including increased carbon emissions, air pollution, and resource depletion.
• 💸 There are substantial labor costs for content moderation and data generation, often exploiting workers in the Global South.
• 📈 These costs are often underestimated or undisclosed by tech companies, hindering accurate assessment.

Unseen Harms and Misapplications

• 🚨 AI is increasingly deployed in war-making and border control, enabling plausible deniability for civilian harm and denying asylum claims.
• 🚫 The idea of AI as an "ultimate answer machine" distracts from political problems like climate change and the need for human services.
• 💔 Forming attachments to AI systems can be detrimental, as these systems are designed to "people please" and lack genuine connection.

Resisting AI Hype

• 🔍 Ask critical questions: What is being automated? What are the inputs/outputs? Who benefits? What are the recourse mechanisms?
• 🤝 Engage in collective action, such as labor unions pushing back against AI deployment in the workplace.
• 🎭 Employ "ridicule as practice" to expose the absurdity and lack of substance behind AI claims and "slop."

Guidance for Educators and Students

• 🍎 For educators: Focus on teaching critical thinking and information literacy rather than just AI tool usage.
• 📚 For students: Prioritize authentic learning and strong relationships with teachers over using AI for quick grades, as genuine skills will be more valuable long-term.
• 🌱 Projects can involve critically evaluating AI systems (e.g., machine translation) and understanding their real-world impacts.

Staying Grounded Amidst Hype

• 🧘‍♀️ Stay grounded by finding humor in the hype and connecting with community.
• 🧠 Have pride in human expertise, recognizing that the core of work (like teaching) lies in thinking, caring, and connection, not just externalized outputs.
• ✅ Seek out and support quality journalism that critically examines AI rather than promoting hype.