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Generative AI Is Not Inevitable

On this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna on the dangers of generative AI.

Paris Marx

May 22, 2025

People attend Computex 2025 at Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei on May 20, 2025.(I-Hwa Cheng / AFP via Getty Images)

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Generative AI is Not Inevitable w/ Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna | Tech Won’t Save Us
byThe Nation Magazine

On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna to discuss some of the harms caused by generative AI, address the industry's ploys to keep the public invested while companies flounder under the weight of unmet promises, and what folks can do to push back.

Emily M. Bender is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at University of Washington. Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Institute. They are the authors of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want.

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On this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, I am joined by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna to discuss some of the harms caused by generative AI, address the industry’s ploys to keep the public invested while companies flounder under the weight of unmet promises, and what folks can do to push back.

Emily M. Bender is a professor in the Department of Linguistics at University of Washington. Alex Hanna is director of research at the Distributed AI Institute. They are the authors of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want.

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The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Too Much Computer: Ingrid Burrington discusses Hyperscale with Paris Marx / Tech Won’t Save Us
byThe Nation Magazine

Hyperscale data centers are not an inevitable infrastructure, but a product of capitalist financialization pushing us further from a livable future. Ingrid Burrington interviews Paris Marx about his new book Hyperscale, discussing the history behind the rise of hyperscale data centers and how companies are obscuring their true social and environmental costs to maximize profits before the overinflated bubble bursts.

Ingrid Burrington is the author of Networks of New York and host of RIP Corp. She’s been writing about internet infrastructure for over a decade, including an 18-story online series for The Atlantic in 2015.

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Paris MarxParis Marx is the author of Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech's Data Empires. He hosts the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast and writes the Disconnect newsletter.


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