Hello everyone! Welcome to the AI Skeptics Reading Group. We're reading The AI Con by Dr. Alex Hanna & Dr. Emily M. Bender.

Format(s)

As a reminder, there are a few ways to participate and get involved:

• this newsletter: obviously you'll get emails if you subscribe. I'll send emails on Mondays
• video chats: on Thursdays at 8pm ET we'll recap the reading for that week and chat about it (and readings from that week)
• signal group chat for people who would like to chat about the content from this week's readings over text, or who can't participate in video chats
• social media: I'm on twitter/x, bluesky, mastodon, etc... and I'll post about reading group stuff sometimes.

Schedule

Let's read Chapter 3: "Leisure for Me, Gig Work for Thee: AI Hype at Work".

If you're looking ahead, our upcoming schedule looks like this:

• October 27: Chapter 3 ("Leisure for Me, Gig Work for Thee: AI Hype at Work")
• November 3: Chapter 4 ("If It Quacks Like a Doc: AI Hype and Social Services")
• November 10: Chapter 5 ("Artifice or Intelligence? AI Hype in Art, Journalism, and Science")
• November 17: Chapter 6 ("I'm Sorry, Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Do That: AI Doomers, AI Boosters, and Why None of That Makes Sense")
• November 24: ??? Nothing, take a break
• December 1: Chapter 7 ("Do You Believe in Hope After Hype?" & RECAP)

Notice the week off!

Please note: I'm skipping the week of November 24; Thanksgiving is that week, and a lot of people either travel or are just busy during that week, so we're going to take a breather that week and we'll come back to finish the book the following week.

This will also help align us for some stuff on December 4; I'm really excited about that, and I'll be able to share more soon.

Okay, that's all for now; hope to chat on signal, or see you on Thursday!