Gebru and Bender: Don't be fooled by this summer of AI hype, says MIT Tech Review op-ed
MilagrosMiceli · x · 2026-09-24
Timnit Gebru and Emily M. Bender argue in MIT Technology Review that this summer's wave of AI headlines — Anthropic claiming Claude Mythos outperforms security researchers at finding vulnerabilities, dueling "mathematical breakthrough" claims from Anthropic and OpenAI, and a viral engineer departure warning of "self-improving superintelligence" — collapse under scrutiny and amount to marketing dressed as breakthroughs.
Their core argument: the industry wants the public to fear a "fictional machine god" rather than the real harms of data centers — climate impact, asthma in nearby communities, rising electricity bills, and water consumption for cooling. They criticize press coverage for uncritically repeating anthropomorphizing framings designed to portray today's software as incipient AGI.
Related event: Gebru and Bender Slam This Summer's AI Breakthroughs as Marketing Hype(3 posts)→
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