Episode 32: A Flood of AI Hell, April 29 2024

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000

AI Hell froze over this winter and now a flood of meltwater threatens to drown Alex and Emily. Armed with raincoats and a hastily-written sea shanty*, they tour the realms, from spills of synthetic information, to the special corner reserved for ShotSpotter.
**Lyrics & video on Peertube.
*Surveillance:*

• Public kiosks slurp phone data
• Workplace surveillance
• Surveillance by bathroom mirror
• Stalking-as-a-service
• Cops tap everyone else's videos
• Facial recognition at the doctor's office

*Synthetic information spills:*

• Amazon products called “I cannot fulfill that request”
• AI-generated obituaries
• X's Grok treats Twitter trends as news
• Touch the button. Touch it.
• Meta’s chatbot enters private discussions
• WHO chatbot makes up medical info

*Toxic wish fulfillment:*

• Fake photos of real memories

*ShotSpotter:*

• ShotSpotter adds surveillance to the over-policed
• Chicago ending ShotSpotter contract
• But they're listening anyway

*Selling your data:*

• Reddit sells user data
• Meta sharing user DMs with Netflix
• Scraping Discord

*AI is always people:*

• Amazon Fresh
• 3D art
• George Carlin impressions
• The people behind image selection

*TESCREAL corporate capture:*

• Biden worried about AI because of "Mission: Impossible"
• Feds appoint AI doomer to run US AI safety institute
• Altman & friends will serve on AI safety board

*Accountability:*

• FTC denies facial recognition for age estimation
• SEC goes after misleading claims
• Uber Eats courier wins payout over ‘racist’ facial recognition app

You can check out future livestreams at https://twitch.tv/DAIR_Institute.
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Emily

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilyMBender
• Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emilymbender.bsky.social

Alex

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/@alexhanna
• Mastodon: https://dair-community.social/@alex
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Christie Taylor.