It's finally here! The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want hit the shelves in May. In this special bonus episode, Alex and Emily speak to tech journalist Vauhini Vara at one of the book's online launch events, where they covered the misleading nature of the term "artificial intelligence," why the use of tools like ChatGPT will only ever cheapen human labor and enrich the already powerful, and how people can fight the narrative that these technologies are inevitable.
Vauhini Vara is a technology reporter and writer. Her journalism has been honored by the Asian American Journalists Association, the International Center for Journalists, the McGraw Center for Business Journalism, and others. Her latest book is Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, a work of journalism and memoir about how big technology companies are exploiting human communication — and how we’re complicit in this.
References
Everyone is cheating their way through college (with ChatGPT)
The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World by Allison Pugh
Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence by Dan McQuillan
Refusing Generative AI in Writing Studies
Pennsylvania's SEIU Local 668 wins a victory against AI
Elon Musk's xAI is polluting Black Memphis residents
Possible Futures: An Internet for Our Elders
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
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Alex
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Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Christie Taylor and Ozzy Llinas Goodman.
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