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The Who's Who of AI

What credible people across AI noticed, why it matters, and where the field is converging or disagreeing.

2,397 searchable experts 4,280 tracked across all sources
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Showing signals surfaced by Emily M. Bender ×

The questions experts are actively pulling apart

One card per development. Sources are clustered; reaction bundles describe these posts, never the people behind them.

New AI field signal Analysis 1h ago
⚡ 774 h early
ghost in machine AI healthcare essay

Ghost in the Machine

7 experts across 2 network communities independently surfaced this.

7 experts 2 communities 1 sources clustered

“This is pretty ahistorical actually. Just because what's going on now is ESPECIALLY toxic & corrupt doesn't mean "AI" as an ideology was ever okay. See: notaidoc.com See: faculty.washington.edu/ebender/pape... >>”

“The history of AI development is not rooted in neutral algorithms, but in entrenched systems of power that shape our lives. Ghost in the Machine dives into this history, interrogating who builds this tech, who benefits from it, and who bears the cost 👉 http…”

11 experts discussed this · 165 posts
Emily M. Bender: "I belong to a cult. Someone did some research that undermines the core tenets of my cult and came up with a catchy phrase that makes it harder to recruit more people to my cult. This makes me sad."
Iris van Rooij: "I belong to a cult. Someone did some research that undermines the core tenets of my cult and came up with a catchy phrase that makes it harder to recruit more people to my cult. This makes me sad."
Emily M. Bender: It's interesting to me that these guys put so much energy into refuting (what they think we meant by) "stochastic parrots" and maybe not as much into refuting the (solid) research connecting "AI" t…
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Established AI field signal Signal 14d ago
⚡ 1225 h early

faculty.washington.edu

5 experts are actively discussing the implications.

2 experts 2 communities 1 sources clustered

“Perhaps this paper, especially the section on "AI" as an ideology, and the other works cited, might be helpful: faculty.washington.edu/ebender/pape... >>”

5 experts discussed this · 41 posts
Emily M. Bender: This sign is a great example for helping to explain why chatbots present such a potent illusion. A probably not short thread 🧵>>
Emily M. Bender: A point I frequently make when talking about chatbots is that their output only seems to make sense because we are making sense of it. And worse, we can only do that sense-making by projecting a mi…
Emily M. Bender: While you might think that understanding something someone wrote is simply a matter of unpacking the meaning (or message) they packed into the words, in fact what we do is much cooler and more invo…
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Established AI field signal Analysis 4d ago
⚡ 6 h early
essay how to talk AI

How to talk about

13 experts across 2 network communities independently surfaced this.

13 experts 2 communities 1 sources clustered

“For reasons mysterious to me, Will Stancil is continuing his crash out about language used to describe LLMs, moving on from raning about "stochastic parrots" to picking up on this piece that @nannainie.bsky.social and I published earlier this summer: button…”

“Instead of railing against the latest “I asked Claude” article in a mainstream publication, I’ll just post this.”

2 experts discussed this · 16 posts
Emily M. Bender: 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 >>
Emily M. Bender: In some cases, no doubt, the speaker fully believes that autonomous thinking machines are among us. (Though I said "otherwise serious people" in the prev post, so.) >>
Emily M. Bender: In other cases, I suspect that people feel like they lack the expertise to call bullshit and are repeating what they hear others say. >>
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Established Models & releases Signal 12d ago
⚡ 92 h early

Anthropic claude morals ai

13 experts across 5 network communities independently surfaced this.

13 experts 5 communities 1 sources clustered

“And every time I pause to look back at that, it seems like the hype has gotten bigger, more extensive, and more insidious. This week, I am seeing credulous media coverage of Anthropic consulting with religious thinkers to try to work out how to "grow" Claud…”

“Gift Link: “It appeared to Rabbi Navon that Mr. Olah and his team believed that Claude had what philosophers call “moral status” on par with a person.””

2 experts discussed this · 5 posts
Eryk Salvaggio: Gift Link: “It appeared to Rabbi Navon that Mr. Olah and his team believed that Claude had what philosophers call “moral status” on par with a person.”
Louise Amoore: Well it’s interesting. I mean, to me the problem here is this notion of “to abide by a moral code”.. so the reduction of ethics to a code or a set of principles by which we live or “abide”. This is…
Louise Amoore: actions according to their fit to a code, well then this is already a matter of exercising normative power. If instead we ask how do ethical norms arise in the context of algorithmic power (exercis…
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Established AI field signal Signal 20d ago

The two words the ai industry hates

3 experts are actively discussing the implications.

2 experts 2 communities 1 sources clustered

“No two words send AI industry advocates into fits of rage more than "stochastic parrots." The question is: Why? Why do they get so worked up over this particular critical framework time and time again? I sat down with @emilymbender.bsky.social, one of the c…”

3 experts discussed this · 15 posts
Brian Merchant: No two words send AI industry advocates into fits of rage more than "stochastic parrots." The question is: Why? Why do they get so worked up over this particular critical framework time and time ag…
Brian Merchant: My theory: More than critiques of circular financing, or of dubious product functionality, "stochastic parrots" undermines the foundation that the entire AI boom is built on: The story that the AI …
Emily M. Bender: No two words send AI industry advocates into fits of rage more than "stochastic parrots." The question is: Why? Why do they get so worked up over this particular critical framework time and time ag…
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Established AI field signal Analysis 16d ago
⚡ 4 h early
Gebru Bender AI war risk essay

Forget ‘superintelligence’: error-prone AI nearly sparked world war three this month | Timnit Gebru and Emily M Bender

11 experts across 3 network communities independently surfaced this.

11 experts 3 communities 1 sources clustered
How the network is reacting 4 experts are independently emphasizing concern & critique.
Reaction converging

Concern & critique

4 experts

Risks, limits and unintended consequences.

“I'm not sure if y'all saw a CNN report on how the US had almost started WW3 with China based on fabricated information generated by a chatbot, claiming that a Chinese vessel was carrying components of nuclear weapons. That was an "existential threat" to hum…”

Policy & governance

2 experts

Rules, institutions and accountability.

“New from @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me: "It is high time for us to regulate usage of systems sold as “AI”, not because they are magical machines, but because they are error-prone products that shouldn’t be used in high stakes scenarios." www.theguardian.…”

2 experts discussed this · 5 posts
Emily M. Bender: New from @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me: "It is high time for us to regulate usage of systems sold as “AI”, not because they are magical machines, but because they are error-prone products that s…
Luke Stark: New from @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me: "It is high time for us to regulate usage of systems sold as “AI”, not because they are magical machines, but because they are error-prone products that s…
Emily M. Bender: Yes we mention this in the article.
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Established Models & releases Development 15d ago
⚡ 55 h early
Anthropic ex-employee quit tweets revealed

You Know That Anthropic Employee Who Quit Citing Risks to Humankind? These Strongly Appear to Be His Bizarre Old Tweets

4 experts across 2 network communities independently surfaced this.

4 experts 2 communities 1 sources clustered

“surprise surprise he’s a climate change denier and doesn’t seem to understand basic reality futurism.com/artificial-i...”

“AI is going to kill us but also string theory is bullshit and the rainforest is gay. This guy's a real winner, huh? futurism.com/artificial-i...”

2 experts discussed this · 3 posts
Mar Hicks: surprise surprise he’s a climate change denier and doesn’t seem to understand basic reality futurism.com/artificial-i...
Mar Hicks: Media stop taking grifting dudes seriously challenge
Emily M. Bender: surprise surprise he’s a climate change denier and doesn’t seem to understand basic reality futurism.com/artificial-i...
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Established AI business Analysis 12d ago
AI doomerism bad science business critique

How the bad science of AI doomerism is good for big business

2 experts are actively discussing the implications.

8 experts 1 community 1 sources clustered

“One of the handful of articles telling it like it is instead of misinforming the public. By @saragoud.bsky.social for @thebulletin.org Yes. Its bad science based on numbers out of various behinds, but that's not how most of the rest of the media is discussi…”

“AI companies are calling for regulation in ways that let them set the rules, not independent parties who can hold them to account. “If you read between the lines, everything [Amodei] advocates [for] is something that would help companies like Anthropic,” sa…”

2 experts discussed this · 2 posts
The Distributed AI Research (DAIR) Institute: AI doomerism isn't sound science, it's a parlor game. Great to see reporting that pushes back and quotes experts like @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and @emilymbender.bsky.social. Coxon and Anthropic "d…
Emily M. Bender: AI doomerism isn't sound science, it's a parlor game. Great to see reporting that pushes back and quotes experts like @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and @emilymbender.bsky.social. Coxon and Anthropic "d…
Teresa Heffernan: Published a paper that traces the fictional roots of irrational claims that superintelligent machines pose an existential risk: "Orga is not Mecha: How Literal Readings of Fiction are Damaging the …
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What experts are discussing without an anchoring article

4 experts · 9 posts · 7d ago
Anthony Moser: *this is funny actually because professor harold hill says you don't need to practice your instrument to get good, you can "use the think method" which is not terribly dissimilar to the pitch made …
Anthony Moser: and it's important to remember (especially for talking with people who aren't interested in the tech) *you don't need to deeply evaluate or disprove the claims of a con man* you just need to spot t…
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3 experts · 11 posts · 17d ago
Emily M. Bender: Really not sure what the point of this is. I do my very best to avoid consuming synthetic media, even though I can't always avoid it. Does not being able to avoid it somehow devalue my critique of …
Emily M. Bender: Or is the claim supposed to be "Everybody uses it dude!" aka another attempt to normalize the whole horrific enterprise and pressure others into accepting it?
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3 experts · 4 posts · 1d ago
Alex Hanna: We hit a huge milestone! 🎉 Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 has reached half a million downloads, thanks to many of you. We started as an accidental podcast in May 2022. Now, 500k downloads and a lot o…
Emily M. Bender: We hit a huge milestone! 🎉 Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 has reached half a million downloads, thanks to many of you. We started as an accidental podcast in May 2022. Now, 500k downloads and a lot o…
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2 experts · 14 posts · 14d ago
Emily M. Bender: But mixed in, Prof. Turkle kept saying things like "It's totally fine to use ChatGPT to ask xyz medical question" or "It's great if AI is going to help find lots of new drugs". >>
Emily M. Bender: And all of this is summed up with "Stay in your lane" aimed at the chatbots: a righteous and rightful call to keep them out of psychotherapy and related fields. >>
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2 experts · 7 posts · 6d ago
Emily M. Bender: I don't actually follow Stancil, but I do follow the phrase "stochastic parrots" and that seems to be a pretty reliable way to get notified when he's on here flaunting his ignorance (about "AI" spe…
Emily M. Bender: Or maybe not -- I guess I don't have any sense of recall, just precision. Perhaps he flaunts his ignorance on this topic even more frequently and I don't see all of it.
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3 experts · 3 posts · 8d ago
Emily M. Bender: Yes, because it is really important to smoke, try heroin, download CSAM (!!!), or burn plastic, etc etc to be able to discuss the dangers and harms of those activities.
Olivia Guest: Yes, because it is really important to smoke, try heroin, download CSAM (!!!), or burn plastic, etc etc to be able to discuss the dangers and harms of those activities.
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