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Recent Episodes
How the War Department Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI (with Naomi Klein), 2026.02.09
AI boosters and the US military are engaged in a lethal love affair. Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein joins Emily and Alex to discuss how glitchy technology supports global imperialism — and vice…
A Bad Case of Hype-itis, 2026.02.02
Move over Dr. Google, Dr. ChatGPT is here, and it's even worse as a medical intervention! Alex and Emily scrub in to slice up some harmful new nonsense in the world of "AI" for medicine. What's the…
Hell All the Way Down, 2022–2025
This is a special episode, and it’s not like our usual livestream recordings. Instead, our producer Ozzy dug through the Fresh AI Hell archives to create a supercut of Alex's improvised transitions.…
Wrapping Up a Hellish 2025, 2025.12.15
For our last recording of 2025, Emily and Alex take on a TIME article naming the "architects of AI" as their person of the year. We also look back at the year in AI nonsense, and share findings from…
Defining AGI: Oops! All Eugenics, 2025.12.08
There's a new definition of artificial general intelligence in town, and unsurprisingly... it's bad! Alex and Emily rip up the tissue-paper-thin premises behind this latest attempt to define…
This is What Algo-cracy Looks Like, 2025.12.01
Tech leaders are pushing the idea that automation can strengthen democracy — but as usual, their bold suggestions are based on castles made of sand. Alex and Emily tear down some flimsy arguments for…
You Talked to Workers for This Labor Research... Right? (with Sophie Song), 2025.11.17
Last month, Senate Democrats warned that "Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade." Ironically, they used ChatGPT to come to that conclusion. DAIR Research Associate Sophie…
Drag It All To Hell, 2025.10.27
It's been six months since our last all-Hell episode! In honor of Halloween season, we take a long journey into the very scary Fresh AI Hell mines. Topics include terrifying uses of AI in education,…
Crunching the Numbers (with Decca Muldowney), 2025.10.20
So-called AI tools are increasingly infiltrating newsrooms, particularly when it comes to data analysis. DAIR writer-in-residence Decca Muldowney joins us to discuss the need for journalists to…
Building Worlds Through Better Reading (with Reo Eveleth), 2025.09.29
Powerful AI boosters claim to love science fiction novels, but why do they always seem to take the wrong lessons from them? Reporter and writer Reo Eveleth joins us to discuss the ways tech leaders…
Three Years of Ridicule as Praxis, 2025.09.19
It's Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000's third birthday! To celebrate, Emily and Alex respond to listener questions about the show, and reflect on the past and future of AI hype. Topics range from how to…
The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie Harrison Dupré), 2025.08.18
Talking to chatbots can have serious mental health consequences — fueling delusions and leading users away from consensus reality. Futurism writer Maggie Harrison Dupré joins us to unpack the hype…
Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and Kate Brennan), 2025.08.04
Trump’s “AI Action Plan” is his latest attempt to turn AI hype into official national policy. Kate Brennan and Sarah Myers West, of the AI Now Institute, join us to dig through this pile of…
Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox), 2025.07.21
After many months of making fun of the term "vibe coding," Emily and Alex tackle the LLMs-as-coders fad head-on, with help from security researcher Susanna Cox. From one person's screed that…
Et Tu, American Federation of Teachers? (with Charles Logan), 2025.07.14
The chatbot boosters are looking for educators to play brand ambassador for more intrusion of so-called "AI" into the classroom. From the American Federation of Teachers' new partnership with OpenAI…
Why "AI" Is a Con: Our Book Launch! (with Vauhini Vara), 2025.05.08
It's finally here! The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want hit the shelves in May. In this special bonus episode, Alex and Emily speak to tech journalist Vauhini Vara…
"Like Magic Intelligence in the Cloud", 2025.05.26
Because Sam Altman hates opening his laptop, OpenAI is merging with iPhone guy Jony Ive's design firm in the name of some mysterious new ChatGPT-enabled consumer products: Alex and Emily go full…
The "AI"-Enabled Immigration Panopticon (with Petra Molnar), 2025.05.05
This week, Alex and Emily talk with anthropologist and immigration lawyer Petra Molnar about the dehumanizing hype of border-enforcement tech. From hoovering up data to hunt anyone of ambiguous…
AGI: "Imminent", "Inevitable", and Inane, 2025.04.21
Emily and Alex pore through an elaborate science fiction scenario about the "inevitability" of Artificial General Intelligence or AGI by the year 2027 - which rests atop a foundation of TESCREAL…
AI Hell in a Handbasket, 2025.04.14
It's been 4 months since we've cleared the backlog of Fresh AI Hell and the bullshit is coming in almost too fast to keep up with. But between a page full of awkward unicorns and a seeming slowdown…
Frequently Asked Questions
Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 has published 74 episodes since May 2023, covering topics in News, Science.
Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 is currently highly active with new episodes every 2 weeks. Average episode length is 1h.
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