Emily M. Bender

Professor of linguistics at the University of Washington

Why they matter

Professor of linguistics at the University of Washington with public evidence across NLP & language, AI research.

AI signals
21
past 30d
Sources
18
distinct domains
Discusiones
35
past 30d
Latest signal
5h ago
View every signal from Emily M. Bender →
Book: https://thecon.ai Web: https://faculty.washington.edu/ebender

Articles & links

Here is some interesting insight into how that narrative is spun: cims.nyu.edu/~tristanb/st... >>

cims.nyu.edu
View on Bluesky · ♥ 10 ↻ 2 ↩ 2 · 13 from the directory shared this · 5h ago

This article ends with a good conclusion, but it is extremely misguided along the way. It is also a rich text for exploring how clear language helps make the point better. A thread: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... >>

science.org
View on Bluesky · ♥ 72 ↻ 22 ↩ 2 · 13 from the directory shared this · 52d ago

The environmental damage is well documented at this point. I think the status of data centers as focal points of economic damage merits a little more expansion: www.wired.com/story/the-ai...

The AI Slop Backlash Is Actually Having an Impact wired.com
AI Weekly's analysis
  • WIRED argues the anti-slop backlash is producing real platform changes rather than just complaint threads, with tools and policies to flag AI content spreading.
  • Substack, YouTube and Pinterest have all added detection, labels or user controls, with Substack partnering with the detection firm Pangram.
  • Merriam-Webster and the Macquarie Dictionary named 'slop' word of the year, and one anti-slop Facebook group has nearly 250,000 members.
Read full analysis →
View on Bluesky · ♥ 129 ↻ 54 ↩ 3 · 10 from the directory shared this · 29d ago

How about a jet-lagged live posting while I read? Trying to read this because I keep getting tagged in posts about it, but the first paragraph already contains synthetic text (a quote from Claude). I will skip that bit and persevere... www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Could AI be conscious? theguardian.com
View on Bluesky · ♥ 476 ↻ 170 ↩ 24 · 8 from the directory shared this · 50d ago
Emily M. Bender reposted
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app

“The message that I always bring when I have a chance is that, when the text that comes out of one of these systems makes sense, it’s because we are making sense of it. This is also in the stochastic parrots paper.”

What Emily Bender Really Meant by "Stochastic Parrots" spectrum.ieee.org
AI Weekly's analysis
  • Bender says the 'stochastic parrots' metaphor was meant to describe large language models specifically, not all AI systems.
  • The 2021 paper was co-authored with Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell, both later fired by Google before its publication.
  • Bender says the paper's biggest omission was the exploitative labor practices underlying large language models.
Read full analysis →
View on Bluesky →
Emily M. Bender reposted
Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social

A new project educators can use to teach the many ways AI resistance takes shape: "Now people around the world are mobilizing to resist the empires of AI and to nourish visions of the future that work for all of us. Amid an onslaught of negative news, this project centers hope."

The AI Resist List airesistlist.org
AI Weekly's analysis
  • Karen Hao launched the AI Resist List on the one-year anniversary of her book Empire of AI as a publicly accessible, community-contributed database.
  • The database organizes entries by 'Pillars of Support' sustaining AI empires, a framework adapted from Choose Democracy's authoritarianism resistance model.
  • Entries span labor actions, legal challenges, and grassroots campaigns across gig work, healthcare, education, and law enforcement sectors.
Read full analysis →
View on Bluesky →

Also worth re-upping: Mathematicians standing up against how their field is being used as marketing for OpenAI and the like: leidendeclaration.ai >>

Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics leidendeclaration.ai
AI Weekly's analysis
  • The Leiden Declaration, released June 2, 2026, warns AI threatens proof integrity, attribution, and peer review in mathematics.
  • Over 2,654 signatories including Fields Medal winner Terence Tao have endorsed the community-initiated declaration.
  • The International Mathematical Union backs the declaration, which makes separate recommendations to researchers, publishers, policymakers, and AI developers.
Read full analysis →
View on Bluesky · ♥ 155 ↻ 56 ↩ 5 · 16 from the directory shared this · 22h ago
Emily M. Bender reposted
Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app

Guys, this is Bernie Sanders' guy for all things AI. Max Tegmark of the Future of Life Institute, funded to the tune of $665m by crypto billionaires, that's of course, after all the Muskrat + friends' money. Their "seed funding" was from Musk. 🧵 www.politico.com/news/2024/03...

politico.com View on Bluesky →

Recent commentary

Really tried of the genre of bsky discourse that goes: "Here is an incredibly pointless thing I use LLMs for, now please bsky be normal about it." >>

View on Bluesky · ♥ 737 ↻ 120 ↩ 11 · 11d ago

A phenomenon I've noticed recently is people trying to occupy some untenable middleground wrt to the use of systems sold as "AI" -- this is a position where people try to recognize the harms of this tech but also hold space for "responsible" or "ethical" use. 🧵>>

View on Bluesky · ♥ 460 ↻ 210 ↩ 14 · 76d ago

This sign is a great example for helping to explain why chatbots present such a potent illusion. A probably not short thread 🧵>>

View on Bluesky · ♥ 459 ↻ 189 ↩ 10 · 19d ago

So many conversations where otherwise serious people throw around the term "AI" without defining it, despite it being notoriously ill-defined. Thinking about why this might be >>

View on Bluesky · ♥ 305 ↻ 66 ↩ 11 · 68d ago

Is there something in the water this week? It seems like the "AI" stans are more upset than usual at the thought that their chatbot idols are no more than interactive fiction and a large dollop of marketing?

View on Bluesky · ♥ 195 ↻ 27 ↩ 14 · 23h ago

Just came across (via a citation alert) a new paper that purports to be a thematic synthetisis of the academic literature on ethical issues of LLMs. It doesn't cite Stochastic Parrots. >>

View on Bluesky · ♥ 117 ↻ 23 ↩ 5 · 78d ago

So Anthropic decided that "let's pause now" was tired and is instead talking about *planning* for a "pause" in the future in case of (lol) self-improving "AI". ... and NPR at least is platforming this nonsense credulously. >>

View on Bluesky · ♥ 123 ↻ 19 ↩ 5 · 95d ago

Recently agreed to review a paper for a journal, based on its promising-looking abstract. Only after agreeing was I shown the author's "AI" disclosure statement. >>

View on Bluesky · ♥ 94 ↻ 14 ↩ 4 · 30d ago

Something called Boltlab..ai (blocked now) is in my mentions. bsky won't show me what they are replying to, but whatever it was, the composition was strong because I used my own brain to write it and you can just fuck right off.

View on Bluesky · ♥ 93 ↻ 2 ↩ 8 · 50d ago

Don't illustrate posts about The AI Con or any of my work with slop (aka synthetic images) challenge: Level impossible, it seems alas. w/ @alexhanna.bsky.social

View on Bluesky · ♥ 65 ↻ 6 ↩ 1 · 99d ago

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