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Emily M. Bender

@emilymbender.bsky.social
45K followers 647 following 4.8K posts

Book: thecon.ai Web: faculty.washington.edu/ebender

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 9m
I heard some absolutely infuriating reporting on OnPoint today (not about 'AI', for once). The guest was someone who's written a book meant to advise Dems on how to win. >>
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The Distributed AI Research (DAIR) Institute @dairinstitute.bsky.social · 2h
In which @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and @emilymbender.bsky.social remind us that the risk of AI is not "superintelligence gone rogue," but human reliance on flawed systems in high-stakes situations: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Forget ‘superintelligence’: error-prone AI nearly sparked world war three this month | Timnit Gebru and Emily M Bender
The risks of AI aren’t what we think they are, as a recent security incident between China and the United States reveals
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Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 4h
Indigenous languages are often hidden to LLMs, for good reason. We speak with Keoni Mahelona about his work on Indigenous data sovereignty, and why it’s worth being skeptical when the “AI" industry says it cares about preserving Indigenous languages. (with @emilymbender.bsky.social)
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Natalie Brender @nataliebrender.bsky.social · 5h
Just because you/I don't understand AI doesn't mean that no one does. So many people buy into this 'poorly understood' line that lets commercially-motivated tech companies off the hook for harms & near-catastrophes. Kudos to @emilymbender.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.blacksky.app for this.
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Prof. Dr Beth Singler @bvlsingler.bsky.social · 12h
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Lisa Messeri @lmesseri.bsky.social · 7h
one of the reasons that I warn researchers away from adapting commercial LLMs into their pipeline is that Big Tech has a history of sunsetting popular, usable products and replacing them with worse ones. (i'm trying to ween myself off of google scholar, but it is hard).
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Tamara Kneese @tamigraph.bsky.social · 7h
Once again it’s @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and @emilymbender.bsky.social bringing AI panic back down to earth. For the love of god people please listen to them
theguardian.com
Forget ‘superintelligence’: error-prone AI nearly sparked world war three this month | Timnit Gebru and Emily M Bender
The risks of AI aren’t what we think they are, as a recent security incident between China and the United States reveals
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 7h
Kind of beside the point, but there's an interesting study in contrasts in the two parts of this op-ed we didn't have control over: >>
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Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 19h
This tech is based on stolen labor, then I reject it. This tech intensifies racism, sexism, and class exploitation, then I reject it. This tech exploits workers in the Global South, then I reject it. This tech exacerbates env & climate problems, then I reject it. All these rationales are valid!
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Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 19h
Any person who has had LLMs forced on their area of expertise is qualified to critique the tech journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
We Reject the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Reflexive Qualitative Research - Tanisha Jowsey, Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke, Deborah Lupton, Michelle Fine, 2025
Four hundred and nineteen experienced qualitative researchers from 32 countries invite readers of Qualitative Inquiry to consider their position on use of gener...
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 7h
New from @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me: "It is high time for us to regulate usage of systems sold as “AI”, not because they are magical machines, but because they are error-prone products that shouldn’t be used in high stakes scenarios." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Forget ‘superintelligence’: error-prone AI nearly sparked world war three this month | Timnit Gebru and Emily M Bender
The risks of AI aren’t what we think they are, as a recent security incident between China and the United States reveals
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 7h
What a thrill to get to interview Keoni Mahelona of Te Hiku Media for Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000! www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis... Keoni, @alexhanna.bsky.social and I had a wonderful conversation about technosolutionism and colonialism in language technology.
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 9h
I'm not sure if y'all saw a CNN report on how the US had almost started WW3 with China based on fabricated information generated by a chatbot, claiming that a Chinese vessel was carrying components of nuclear weapons. That was an "existential threat" to humanity www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Forget ‘superintelligence’: error-prone AI nearly sparked world war three this month | Timnit Gebru and Emily M Bender
The risks of AI aren’t what we think they are, as a recent security incident between China and the United States reveals
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There's a long discussion going on in my mentions about whether or not "LLMs" (quotes explained in a sec) apparently getting mostly* correct answers to arithmetic questions is "inconsistent" with the stochastic parrots metaphor. >>
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Tech industry is laser focused on solving the problem of humans enjoying each other’s company bsky.app/profile/down...
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Le Club de Mediapart @mediapartblogs.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Hacker la tech : un débat exceptionnel organisé avec l’argent des Gafam ! Par @carinefouteau.bsky.social
l.mediapart.fr
Hacker la tech : un débat exceptionnel organisé avec l’argent des Gafam !
« Mediapart » vous invite, le 17 octobre à Paris, à un grand événement public avec celles et ceux qui, partout dans le monde, se mobilisent pour dénoncer l’emprise des géants du numérique. En partenariat avec « The Guardian », avec les voix technocritiques américaines Emily M. Bender et Paris Marx, des travailleurs de la donnée, les chercheurs les plus affûtés et la participation de Naomi Klein et d’Alain Damasio.
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Anne Helen Petersen @annehelen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is *the* piece. Kate Manne, professor of philosophy at Cornell, speaks truth to the totality of failures at the university — and why students protesting the war in Gaza have faced far harsher consequences than any of the Cornell 7: www.thecut.com/article/what...
thecut.com
What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now
As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
probably fine that all these new ai agent rollouts are so cutesy and childish. probably a sign of innocuous, normal shit
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hey, remember when engineering fields (all of them) took pride in precision, rigorous testing, safety standards, sufficient margins for error, etc? Yeah, that was nice. www.404media.co/these-tech-w... >>
404media.co
These Tech Workers Made ChatGPT Drive a Toyota Corolla
The team used frontier LLMs with no prior training data navigate a simple parking lot course.
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
as a satire on so-called late stage capitalism how could one beat investors pouring a trillion into a company offering to wipe out humankind
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Maura Doherty @molowell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Don't anthropomorphize. Read this if you haven't already ⬇️
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Guys, no one doubts that Tesla is responsible if its cars roll down hills and crash into people (or anything else). The problem is that until VERY recently, it was not accepted that it was possible for something on wheels that we forgot to put breaks on to travel downhill at high speed.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
Number of times the word “Black” appears in this article: 0 Number of times the word “immigrant” appears in this article: 0 Number of times the word “abortion” appears in this article: 0
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
I’m not saying you should read this—it’s not very good. However, I just thought this section head in particular deserved widespread ridicule. www.vox.com/politics/504...
Mass surveillance has its downsides
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Bruno Dias @brunodias.dev · 28/09/2026
It really doesn't make sense to attribute those job losses to AI-the-technology, because if that were the case we'd be observing AI outputs displacing conventional entertainment products, and they're clearly not. Rather, the impact of AI is that AI-the-business is crowding out other investment.
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Lizard @lizardky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
No matter how bad you think AI is, it’s worse. This technology is not fit for purpose, and the nature of LLMs means it likely never will be.
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David Dark @daviddark.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"The illusion of speed and urgency promulgated by the tech companies is also a ploy to misdirect both policymakers and the public. Unfortunately, it sometimes works." @timnitgebru.blacksky.app & @emilymbender.bsky.social www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
technologyreview.com
Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype
Breathless claims about AGI and new capabilities fall apart pretty quickly under scrutiny.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I'm afraid the Doomer discourse has persisted for another week (UN "AI" briefing, etc) so in case you missed this when we first put it out earlier in this bananas news cycle, I'm reposting it: buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch... w/ @alexhanna.bsky.social and @deccamuldowney.bsky.social
buttondown.com
What To Read To Stay Grounded Amidst AI Doomerism
Our recommendations for the anxious and perplexed By: Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna and Decca Muldowney There’s a subculture within the “AI” industry that...
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Lia @liasae.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I am now keeping this on speed-dial
Edited old IBM printout in black caps on off-white paper.
'A computer can never be held accountable
Therefore a computer must always do the hacking haha what are they gonna do, put a computer in jail? Haha "oops it's alive" lmao'
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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Citation remains a political and pedagogical choice.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This is a thread about erasure of women's expertise and work in this area. As often happens, erasure comes together with overexposure. >>
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
If you want to say that clear statements of what's going on with LLMs aren't getting enough media attention, then do something about that and lift up the work of those of us who have been researching and speaking about this, from a place of expertise. >>
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Just listened to the latest @dreamingagainstthemachine.com and while there's some good stuff here, some of it also needs a response: www.dreamingagainstthemachine.com/episode-24-t... 🧵>>
dreamingagainstthemachine.com
Episode 24: The Myth of AI Doom, with Cal Newport
This week, Adam talks with computer scientist and author Cal Newport about the resurgent claims of AI doom in the news, where these ideas come from, and what we can do to shift the narrative around AI...
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I think there are two key lessons from Linguistics as we deal with LLMs/chatbots being imposed on us everywhere. Grateful for Undark Magazine giving space for me to lay these out: undark.org/2026/09/25/i...
undark.org
Interview: What Does the 'I' in AI Really Mean?
Five scientific experts discuss whether artificial intelligence is — or might one day become — truly intelligent.
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tante @tante.cc · 27/09/2026
Slapping an LLM In front of specialized machine learning systems that actually can solve specific tasks does not mean that the "stochastic parrot" metaphor has failed.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I think there are two key lessons from Linguistics as we deal with LLMs/chatbots being imposed on us everywhere. Grateful for Undark Magazine giving space for me to lay these out: undark.org/2026/09/25/i...
undark.org
Interview: What Does the 'I' in AI Really Mean?
Five scientific experts discuss whether artificial intelligence is — or might one day become — truly intelligent.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Just listened to the latest @dreamingagainstthemachine.com and while there's some good stuff here, some of it also needs a response: www.dreamingagainstthemachine.com/episode-24-t... 🧵>>
dreamingagainstthemachine.com
Episode 24: The Myth of AI Doom, with Cal Newport
This week, Adam talks with computer scientist and author Cal Newport about the resurgent claims of AI doom in the news, where these ideas come from, and what we can do to shift the narrative around AI...
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I'm afraid the Doomer discourse has persisted for another week (UN "AI" briefing, etc) so in case you missed this when we first put it out earlier in this bananas news cycle, I'm reposting it: buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch... w/ @alexhanna.bsky.social and @deccamuldowney.bsky.social
buttondown.com
What To Read To Stay Grounded Amidst AI Doomerism
Our recommendations for the anxious and perplexed By: Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna and Decca Muldowney There’s a subculture within the “AI” industry that...
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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Put it in the @apstylebook.com [not that they'd ever listen to me. but it's a good idea.]
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MT @madiha.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Excited to teach @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social's The AI Con this week. So accessible for undergrads!
Picture of the book titled The AI Con.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
When Coxon was suddenly ALL OVER the media, it felt to many like that was because his story deserved that much interest i.e. that the media was doing its job informing the public of an important threat. The wall-to-wall media coverage wasn't organic though, it was orchestrated: >>
piratewires.com
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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
From Serena Jampel, one of the writing tutors I worked with at Harvard on the difference between the human tutor and AI and how a writing tutor can help a student find their voice. Lots of wisdom and also this truth: "the more you use it, the more you use it" www.harvardmagazine.com/commentary/h...
And that was another remarkable feature of the Writing Center. Sometimes students would resist my feedback, insisting that their structure would make sense once they added a bit more reasoning. In doing so, they were often pushed to articulate their thinking more clearly, and to affirm their confidence in their position.

An LLM cannot do that, because it does not have its own opinions or thoughts. It is only trained to engage the user: the more you use it, the more you use it. That’s actually the antithesis of writing instruction, which aims to cultivate independent thought.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Completely unclear to me what the business model of this start-up is, but this stunt amounts to "We went around putting placebo roofies in people's drinks to show how easy it is to put roofies in people's drinks." www.sfgate.com/tech/article... >>
sfgate.com
This SF startup's advanced stalking drone is meant to keep you safe
A terrifying video shows an AI-piloted drone that can stalk someone.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"X's Y went rogue and" meme when?
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Carl's Speak-n-Spell went rogue and said lots of bad words.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026
Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 26/09/2026
Can a video of a CEO stubbing their toe feel pain? It can at least act like it does.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"X's Y went rogue and" meme when?
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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 26/09/2026
Amazingly, no one was responsible
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