Hello everyone! Welcome to the AI Skeptics Reading Group, finally beginning in earnest this week. We'll be starting The AI Con by Dr. Alex Hanna & Dr. Emily M. Bender today.

Format(s)

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 concepts and arguments the book makes
• 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

Okay, with that all laid out, this week let's read Preface & Chapter 1: "An Introduction to AI Hype". I'm trying to aim for about 20 pages of reading per week, but occasionally I'll offer additional things to read if you're interested, or other media such as videos, podcasts, etc... if they seem relevant.

If you're looking ahead, the schedule for the next few weeks will (tentatively) look like this:

• October 13: Preface & Chapter 1 ("An Introduction to AI Hype")
• October 20: Chapter 2 ("It's Alive! The Hype of Thinking Machines")
• 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: Chapter 7 ("Do You Believe in Hope After Hype?")

Other stuff

If you're in the area, Karen Hao will be at the University of Michigan speaking about Empire of AI on October 20. You can sign up to attend here.

Okay, that's all for now. See you on Thursday.