Notices by Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her) (emilymbender@dair-community.social), page 2

Have you been asked by a medical provider recently for consent to have an "AI" scribe record your visit? Us, too. And we have **thoughts**

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/why-you-should-refuse-to-let-your-doctor-record/

RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/116415758263803823

And it's happened again -- someone replied to one of my posts about mansplaining with a "well, actually ..." joke about mansplaining. You get blocked for this folks, because it is is boundary crossing behavior.

When someone writes about something that is painful or even just unpleasant, responding with: "How but a little more of that, but as a joke?" is not funny, respectful, or appropriate.

There's a person on here sealioning in my mentions about mansplaining and demanding criteria for adjudicating whether any individual comment is or is not mansplaining.

This is, of course, asking the wrong question: It's asking "How do I defend myself against accusation?" rather than "How do I interact with people (esp women sharing their expertise) respectfully?"

RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/116415137144147967

When people ask me about "AI" policy, I like to point out that there is policy being made at many different levels and even if our national government is currently a shitshow, local action really matters, like zoning against data centers and "AI" policy in schools.

A "pause AI" letter that I actually like (and signed)! Because it's not about imagined doomsday scenarios, but rather putting the brakes on the rush to impose synthetic text extruding machines in schools in particular:

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/call-for-five-year-pause-on-gen-ai-in-schools%E2%80%8B

Last year, someone (specifically, OUP) asked me to write an encyclopedia entry for "AI". I've just finished reviewing the copy edits, so hopefully it will be in the world soon. Meanwhile, a teaser:

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"The term “AI” resists definition because it is continually reappropriated by people to mean different things. This, in turn, means that discussions of AI that do not provide working definitions for the purposes at hand risk incoherence. [...]

Accordingly, this article does not provide a definition of the term “AI” but rather explores various ways in which the idea of AI has been used to organize how people understand our world, allocate resources, and relate to each other."

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RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/116411162357897494

Me: Here is a brief overview of an encyclopedia article I was commissioned to write

17 reply guys on the fedi (plus, tbf, a couple each on bsky and LI): This is what you should have written!

Seriously though I do appreciate those who responded with excitement about what I wrote + others who engaged with the content, at least.

Motors and engines can be more or less powerful in the very literal sense that they can generate more or less physical power.

Language can be powerful in that it gives us the power to move people.

Spreadsheet software (or calculators, for that matter) is powerful because it provides useful functions that help us to keep track of information, do calculations, etc in a way that gives us a better vantage point over that info and/or saves time.

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I think that when large language models (and systems built around them) are advertised as "powerful" there's a strategic and insidious ambiguity at play.

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I heard a reporter from Axios interviewed on NPR the other day (Marketplace Tech, I think) talking about how the tech companies are putting out new models every 6 months to 1 year and how each model is more "powerful" than the previous.

This got me thinking about what it means when we describe technology and this technology in particular as "powerful".

🧵>>

It's time to #TalkAboutHumanities so here is a contribution:

Resisting Dehumanization in the Age of 'AI': The View from the Humanities

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Lc6QNxolQ

Almost a year ago, I was described in the FT as "a Cassandra with a wry grin and twinkling eye", and was entertained because Cassandra (famously) was right.

It's actually not fun, though, to watch the world do things you've been warning against:

https://www.newstatesman.com/technology/2026/04/the-silent-coup

The other was a student who asked if I thought we could get back to a world where people care about art. I turned that back to the audience and asked "Who here cares about art?" Every single hand went up. Not a random sample of the population to be sure, but the question asker was also not alone.

My Feb 2026 Katz Lecture for UW's Simpson Center for the Humanities is now available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Lc6QNxolQ

Unfortunately, the recording doesn't include the Q&A. Two things I remember from that:

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The first is a student who asked how to resist pressure to use "AI" without being a stick in the mud. I said: Be a stick in the mud! Help create the solid ground that others might stand on too.

I shared this story with Sam Cole on the @404mediaco podcast, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwBZiuH-1QY

Just when we thought gig work couldn’t get any more horrifying, now we have to add the fact that your employer might secretly be the US military. On the next Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Niamh McIntyre joins me and @alex to discuss her latest investigation into the human labor behind “AI”.

Livestream info:
Monday, March 30, noon PT,
https://twitch.tv/dair_institute

RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/116298068312271239

And for info on how to watch the good one, see https://notaidoc.com/

So two documentaries about "AI" are coming out this week -- a good one and a bad one. For some info on which is which and why, see:

https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/a-tale-of-two-ai-documentaries/

As a general media literacy tip: If the claim is that someone used "AI" or "ChatGPT" to do something, the real story is probably something else.