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Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)

emilymbender@dair-community.social

<p>Professor, Linguistics, University of Washington</p><p>Faculty Director, Professional MS Program in Computational Linguistics (CLMS)</p><p>If we don&#39;t know each other, I probably won&#39;t reply to your DM. For more, see my contacting me page: <a href="http://faculty.washington.edu/ebender/contact/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">faculty.washington.edu/ebender</span><span class="invisible">/contact/</span></a></p>

Posts

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    RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/117373648425005854 Today!

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    On the next Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 livestream, we’re so excited to chat with authors of the new book, Against Tech Oligarchy! JS Tan]and Clarissa Redwine will join me and @alex@dair-community.social to chat about tech industry labor. Tune in: Monday, Oct 5, noon Pacific https://twitch.tv/dair_institute

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    Have you seen Ghost in the Machine yet? If not, you are in for a treat --- a thoughtful, wry deep dive into the history, present, and ideology of &quot;AI&quot;. Streaming for free on PBS&#39;s YouTube channel in the US &amp; Korea, rentable on Kinema elsewhere. https://notaidoc.com/

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    New from @timnitGebru@dair-community.social and me: &quot;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.&quot; https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/01/forget-superintelligence-error-prone-ai-nearly-sparked-world-war-iii-this-month

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    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: https://undark.org/2026/09/25/interview-artificial-intelligence/

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    I&#39;m afraid the Doomer discourse has persisted for another week (UN &quot;AI&quot; briefing, etc) so in case you missed this when we first put it out earlier in this bananas news cycle, I&#39;m reposting it: https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/what-to-read-to-stay-grounded-amidst-ai-doomerism/ w/ @alex@dair-community.social and @deccamuldowney@journa.host

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    The word of the day is: &quot;unleash&quot; I&#39;ve been seeing a lot of &quot;unleashing AI&quot;, &quot;unleashing expertimentation (with AI)&quot;, and even ostensibly critical &quot;OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT on the world with no one&#39;s consent&quot;. &gt;&gt;

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    From @timnitGebru@dair-community.social and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1144867/dont-be-fooled-summer-ai-hype/

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    RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/110906329010147244 Every time I decide to post a thread to Mastodon, I&#39;m hit with a new wave of mansplaining. What is it with the culture here? Why do all of these guys think it&#39;s so important to share their deep insights in my mentions when they can just post on their own feed? FFS.

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    I use Mastodon for public scholarship, because that is one of the main benefits I see to public/open social media. It&#39;s how I used Twitter and I&#39;ve definitely benefited from other people using social media this way. But in my experience, Mastodon is &#39;splainy AF, which is exhausting. Just this morning, a gentleman decided I would benefit from an explanation of GIGO, FFS. So, while I never insist on titles, I&#39;m going to include mine in my display name for a while, to see if that...

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    Thinking about the selling point of &quot;AI&quot; supposedly &quot;freeing up time&quot; to do important things. Beyond devaluing the tasks that we can supposedly offload to software systems, it occurs to me that this is kind of opposite of mindfulness/being in the moment. A short thread &gt;&gt;

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    Me: Puts time and effort into curating a reading list (nb: this is not my day job) to help people with navigating this bananas moment where the media is captured by all the worst AI bros, posts link here on the Fedi. Mansplainer in my replies on Mastodon: &quot;It&#39;s just marketing&quot; Me: YES, I KNOW. Also, do you realize it&#39;s possible to either keep your thoughts to your self or just post on your own feed? Sheesh.

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    RE: https://newsie.social/@TheNeedling/117290024708643957 We effectively did a whole podcast on this, but the Needling gets the point across in a single short piece: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/19817583-manifesting-the-end-of-tech-bro-manifestos-2026-09-08

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    Me: I do not need the mansplaining mansplained. No idea why you thought that might be welcome. Mansplainer: Buh buh buh why are you so rude to meeeee --- Me: Replying to someone is demanding their attention. Mansplainer: Well actually people have different mental models of social media. --- Starting to see the pattern: mansplainers don&#39;t understand consent, but feel VERY ENTITLED to push their uninteresting thoughts into other people&#39;s mentions.

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    RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/117292656176293011 Also available as video on PeerTube: https://peertube.dair-institute.org/w/b8fH3fp2fr3Dpki11tsWfb

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    Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 85: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/19817583-manifesting-the-end-of-tech-bro-manifestos-2026-09-08 … in which @alex@dair-community.social and I sift through the ramblings of billionaires who understand neither the world we live in nor the tech they’re selling.

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    Here&#39;s the thing about social media folks: Post on your own feed = people who follow you and presumably want to know your thoughts will see it. Reply to someone else&#39;s post = you are demanding attention from someone else, so you&#39;d be well advised to check whether you are telling them something they likely already know. Wanna share a thought based on what someone else said? Bare minimum, respect their expertise and acknowledge their contribution.

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    All of this coverage of AI Doomerism making you anxious? It&#39;s nonsense and you can go back to your more pressing concerns. If you want to learn more: https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/what-to-read-to-stay-grounded-amidst-ai-doomerism/

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    I was disappointed to read Cory Doctorow&#39;s post where he got weirdly defensive about his LLM use and started arguing with an imaginary foe. @tante@tldr.nettime.org has a very thoughtful reply here: https://tante.cc/2026/02/20/acting-ethical-in-an-imperfect-world/ A few further comments, 🧵&gt;&gt;

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    RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/117271327519433700 Folks, if you want to know what&#39;s *really* up with &quot;AI&quot;, where the harms lie, and contextualize the nonsense du jour, this film is must watch.

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    For audiences in the US and Korea, Ghost in the Machine is now available on PBS&#39;s YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLQzVLtvdv8

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    AI Doomerism has been in the news lately, especially with the loud, viral resignation of Jacob Coxon from Anthropic. Maybe I&#39;ve missed it, but I haven&#39;t seen any statements from CEOs and other execs who are more on the AI Booster side of the ledger. 🧵&gt;&gt;

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    Created this for a reply on LinkedIn, but it applies pretty generally, so posting it here, too:

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    RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/117016420622784045 Today!

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    RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/116974840056295473 Also available as video on PeerTube: https://peertube.dair-institute.org/w/23g3vAkBsgQM1svfo3hhRD

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    RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/117016420622784045 Join us tomorrow!

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    From Altman proclaiming the “singularity”, to the Guardian publishing blather about possible AI consciousness, to OpenAI and Anthropic blaming their cybercrimes on “rogue models” the nonsense is coming fast and thick these days and much of the media is lapping it up. Time for another Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 livestream with me and @alex@dair-community.social: Monday, August 3, noon PT https://twitch.tv/dair_institute

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    One of my worst speech technology nightmares has been happening right in my own city! In the latest Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, @alex@dair-community.social and I dig into it: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/19535278-state-of-emergency-2026-06-29

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    Happy UK paperback release day to our book! https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/468070/the-ai-con-by-hanna-emily-m-bender-and-alex/9781529949902 w/ @alex@dair-community.social

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    LinkedIn where people come to proudly state that they have cooked their own brains and/or just really really love licking those boots. All of these were in response to my post about the ACM&#39;s announcement that they&#39;ve decided &quot;Now is the Time to Give LLMS Access to the ACM Digital Library&quot; and then requestd input on that decision.