Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

Beware the 20x Engineer, 2026.05.11


Listen Later

"Sure, LLMs are bad at some things, but you can't deny that they're useful for programming!" Sound familiar? In this week's episode, Emily and Alex break down the key myths around AI-boosted productivity in tech. Plus, Alex previews her work with DAIR's newly launched Luddite Lab, where workers are organizing against automation.

References:

  • Yale Budget Lab report: "What Might AI Adoption Mean for the Fiscal and Economic Outlook?"
    • Also referenced: Karger et al. paper funded by Open Philanthropy
  • Garry Tan’s gstack
  • "Karpathy-Inspired Claude Code Guidelines"

Previous MAIHT3k episodes referenced:

  • Episode 60: Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox)
  • Episode 53: Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday)

Fresh AI Hell:

  • Emotional surveillance at work
  • DARPA call for proposals on "Decentralized Artificial Intelligence"
  • CircleCI claims "the promised AI productivity boom isn’t all hype"
  • Andreessen is at it again
  • "A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed"
  • Retraction of pro-edtech paper
  • Chaser: "Minnesota passes the nation’s first ban on ‘nudification’ apps"

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.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000By Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna

  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5

4.5

62 ratings


More shows like Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

View all
Jacobin Radio by Jacobin

Jacobin Radio

1,461 Listeners

Novara Media by Novara Media

Novara Media

172 Listeners

The Dig by Daniel Denvir

The Dig

1,583 Listeners

Citations Needed by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson

Citations Needed

3,909 Listeners

TRASHFUTURE by TRASHFUTURE

TRASHFUTURE

591 Listeners

Your Undivided Attention by The Center for Humane Technology, Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin

Your Undivided Attention

1,627 Listeners

Factually! with Adam Conover by Headgum

Factually! with Adam Conover

2,234 Listeners

Tech Won't Save Us by Paris Marx

Tech Won't Save Us

577 Listeners

This Machine Kills by This Machine Kills

This Machine Kills

216 Listeners

If Books Could Kill by Michael Hobbes & Peter Shamshiri

If Books Could Kill

9,431 Listeners

In Bed With The Right by Adrian Daub and Moira Donegan

In Bed With The Right

567 Listeners

The 404 Media Podcast by 404 Media

The 404 Media Podcast

392 Listeners

Better Offline by Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts

Better Offline

608 Listeners

Taylor Lorenz’s Power User by Taylor Lorenz

Taylor Lorenz’s Power User

307 Listeners

Panic World by COURIER

Panic World

306 Listeners