The AI Con

Emily Bender is a computational linguist known partly for her work coining the term “stochastic parrots” to describe large language models, and Alex Hanna is a sociologist who has studied AI’s social impacts closely — together they form an unusually credible team for this kind of critique, rooted in both technical understanding of what AI systems actually do and social scientific understanding of how narratives about technology shape public perception and policy. The AI Con makes a sustained, specific argument: that the claims made by major AI companies about their systems’ capabilities, their societal benefits, and their inevitability are systematically exaggerated, often in ways that serve those companies’ commercial and political interests while obscuring real harms and alternative possibilities. The book doesn’t simply claim AI is bad; it challenges readers to distinguish between what AI systems actually do and what the industry claims they do, and to think critically about who benefits from the gap between those two things. That analytical approach, backed by specific examples and evidence rather than vague skepticism, gives the book a rigor that distinguishes it from more reactive technology criticism. At 288 pages, it’s pointed and readable rather than exhaustive, making its case efficiently and leaving readers with a sharper, more skeptical toolkit for evaluating AI claims going forward. For readers who want a technically grounded, critically rigorous perspective on AI that doesn’t come from the industry promoting it, this is one of the most substantive options currently available.

Author:
Emily Bender, Alex Hanna