The Distributed AI Research (DAIR) Institute

Incredibly good panel. Alex Hanna of DAIR just talked about “ridicule as praxis.”

We have shirts!

store.dair-institure.org

Twitch Twitch is the world

🎧On the next Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000...🎧

@mwoluchem.bsky.social and @livgar.bsky.social of @datasociety.bsky.social join @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social to dig into the reality of data center construction.

Tune in live:
Monday, March 9, noon PT,
twitch.tv/dair_institute

Picture of a panel in a conference center. There is a dias with a black curtain at the front, and a gray podium. Behind the dias sits Carmen Maria Machado, a fair-skinned femme wearing glasses with dark hair, Umair Kazi, a brown masc with dark hair, Alex Hanna, a brown butch trans woman with short brown hair, and Vauhini Vara, a brown woman with long black hair wearing a red blouse.

There were 250 people in the audience, at the biggest available room for our #awp26 panel, Resisting AI in Writing and Teaching.

It was invigorating; hearing about how writing instructors are pushing back against their institutions was inspiring. Thanks to my co-panelists Carmen and Umair.

L’inganno dell’intelligenza artificiale. Come resistere a Big Tech e costruire il futuro che vogliamo - Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna Una riflessione lucida, brillante e accessibile sulle sfide poste dall’intelligenza artificiale: per riportare il dibattito sulle questioni essenziali ‒ diritti, trasparenza, responsabilità ‒, sceglie...

@alexhanna.bsky.social e io siamo al settimo cielo per la traduzione in Italiano del nostro libro "The AI Con"; "L’inganno dell’intelligenza artificiale" sarà disponibile il 17 Marzo!

fazieditore.it/libro/979125...

Ad for a session. There is a black and teal gradient in the back. It reads AWP 2026 Conference How to Resist AI in Writing & Teaching Then three images: A femme with dark hair wearing a black blazer and a dark blouse, looking towards the camera, with an arm up on a table. Below it reads, Carmen Maria Machado. A black and white picture of a man with dark skin, slightly long black hair, and dark stubble. Below it reads, Umair Kazi. A brown trans woman with slightly longer black curly hair, wearing a black sweater, with her arms crossed. She is standing in front of a brick wall. Below it reads, Dr. Alex Hanna. A fourth picture is on the right: a woman with brown skin, shoulder-length black hair, is smiling and looking at the camera. She is wearing a chunky necklace and a black t-shirt. Below it reads, Moderated by Vauhini Vara. Below the images, it reads: Thursday, March 5, 12:10 PM. Room 310. Sponsored by The Author's Guild. The Author's Guild is represented by its logo.

Thursday @ AWP 2026! Join Carmen Maria Machado, Umair Kazi, @vauhinivara.bsky.social, and myself as we discuss how to Resist AI in Writing and Teaching. Sponsored by @authorsguild.org.

12:10 PM in Room 310. See you in Baltimore!

authorsguild.org/event/awp-20...

Flow chart showing OpenAI, Google Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Perplexity, ProRate.ai, IBM, Mistral, Anthropic, Nvidia, in that order with the biggest deals, with OpenAI having 21 deals, Google 17, Meta 8, Microsoft 4, Amazon 3.

Check out this interactive website by Nana Mgbechikwere, showing BigTech and "AI" companies' media capture.

No wonder the public is getting misinformed.

They say it is inspired by @surveillancewatch.bsky.social, which ❤️

nananwachukwu.github.io

An image with a blue gradient in the center and California poppy in faded yellow. It features the Berkeley Sociology logo, and the following text: From: 'David James Harding' via socgrads@lists.berkeley.edu <socgrads@lists.berkeley.edu> Date: Mon, Mar 2, 2026 at 8:01 AM Subject: 2026 Sociology Commencement Speaker: Dr. Alex Hanna Dear Sociology Community, I'm very pleased to announce that our speaker for the 2026 Sociology Commencement will be Dr. Alex Hanna, a writer and a sociologist of technology, labor, inequality, and social movements whose academic and public-facing work can be found in our discipline's top journals, blogs, op-eds, policy briefs, and in your neighborhood book store.

17 years ago, I didn't get into the UC Berkeley Sociology program.

In May, I'll have the distinct honor of giving the keynote speech at this year's commencement. I'm still processing this, but I'm ecstatic for the opportunity to pay forward a little voice of hope and solidarity.

See you all soon! This one will be fun.

Photo of Timnit Gebru Founder: The Distributed AI Research Institute @dairinstitute.bsky.social «If I hated OpenAI more than Google, I hate Anthropic more than OpenAI»

Anthropic no es mejor que OpenAI. Son dos caras de la misma moneda criminal de la IAG, que comparten dinámicas de robo, extractivismo, explotación, manipulación, desinformación, control y potencial armamentístico

Lean a @timnitgebru.bsky.social del @dairinstitute.bsky.social que de esto SABE mucho!

TODAY ⬇️

Tune into the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 livestream, featuring @adambecker.bsky.social!

Monday, March 2, noon PT
twitch.tv/dair_institute

Was literally *just* talking about this to a friend of mine. The bubble was about to pop, and there is no civilian demand for the things they have built.

Cada día regalaría esta bolsa del @dairinstitute.bsky.social a más personas...

Personas que descubren un martillo y, a partir de ese momento, todos los problemas son clavos.

The military is bailing out the AI industry. We interview author and activist @naomiaklein.bsky.social on our latest episode of Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000. Check out episode 72: How the War Department Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI.

(with @emilymbender.bsky.social)

black tote bag printed with a gray warning box that says “Just because you’ve identified 🔍 a problem ⚠️ doesn’t mean a chatbot 💬 is the solution 💡 for it.”

v pleased to report that my @dairinstitute.bsky.social tote bag came in time for me to carry it around the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Detroit in a couple weeks

How can we dream up a better world if we outsource all of our critical thinking to AI?

In our final episode of AI Lingo Bingo, we’re tackling some of the buzziest buzzwords with some incredible people...

dair_institute - Twitch Twitch account for The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR).

On the next Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 livestream, @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social will try to keep their feet on the ground when they're joined by @adambecker.bsky.social to discuss fantasies of data centers in space:

Monday, March 2, noon PT,
twitch.tv/dair_institute

NEW! Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000: How the War Department Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI

@naomiaklein.bsky.social joins @emilymbender.bsky.social & @alexhanna.bsky.social to discuss how AI boosters & the US military are engaged in a lethal love affair.

www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis...

Can't wait for tomorrow's Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 episode drop! w/ @alexhanna.bsky.social

👀👀👀

A stand containing a wide variety of zines. In the background you can see the room is crowded, but can't see any faces.

A scrolling break of artistic delight:

I went to a trans art show/zine fair and got some new gems for my zine collection! Wanted to share a few of my favorites 🧵

(and stay for some Dylan lore at the end)

> Blacksky didn’t begin with a pitch deck or a promise of disruption. It began with something much older and more enduring – a principle of mutual aid.

Mandatory reading for anyone that wants to work with or for @blackskyweb.xyz in the future.

AI and Media Moderation for Blacksky-Only Posts Blacksky-only posts are coming. The community uploads 100K+ media monthly, too much for human review alone. Any AI moderation would run on our own infrastructure. No third party gets access to Blacksk...

🗳️ Blacksky-only posts are coming.
- The community uploads 100K+ media monthly, too much for human review alone.
- Any AI moderation (if we used it) would run on our own infrastructure.
- No third party gets access to Blacksky data, period.

Please weigh in using the below survey by Feb 28th 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

Altruismo Efectivo (EA) y largoplacismo. Gente que tiene dinero y recursos a rabiar. Dicen ser «el lado luminoso de la IA», niegan el consumo de agua de los data centers e invaden cada vez más espacios de PRENSA y coaliciones de ARTISTAS para hacerte creer que están de tu lado. Spoiler: no lo están.

“But what if enough is enough? What if all we need is [good old-fashioned AI]? What if we don't want to pollute the environment, or steal the labor of artists, or cause a global shortage in hardware”

ok look, I understand why you would think I don’t need another tote bag. but hear me out,

this is not as critical of a piece as is needed for the discourae in the current moment so maybe we'll save this for a rainy day read when the stakes are a bit less 😭

yeah ultimately we're looking for AI that isn't in service of exploitation and capitalism

whoops i didn't realize there was political / leftist AI discourse happening already this week 😅 this essay has nothing to do with that, although it unfortunately defends old AI because while i hate generative AI, i can still imagine some place for very bounded, small-scale, data-less AI

Email from Epstein to Goertzel: "free and home" Goertzel replies: ";-))) Congratulations!!!! Actually, I was just about to send you an email summarizing my recent progress, current situation, and future hypothetical plans...I'll probably do so tomorrow. I'm sure you're super-swamped, but it would be great to get together when you have the chance... ben" Goertzel continues: "p.s. Also, the Singularity Summit (futurist conference, but with some good scientific speakers this year) will be in NY this year, Oct 3-4...and Oct 5-6, afterwards, there will be a brainstorming workshop I think you might enjoy (where, basically, the ~20 speakers from the Summit will get together and try to make conceptual progress on various future-science issues). I'll remind you again when the date gets closer!"

Ben Goertzel, popularizer of the term AGI and creator of the Sophia robot, congratulating Jeffrey Epstein the day after Epstein was released from prison.

Goertzel is mentioned in the files nearly 800 times, including well after the Miami Herald investigation in 2018.

Merch! Merch! Merch!

Emily Bender, a white woman with curly brown hair, glasses and a big smile, wears a red t-shirt that reads: Always Read The Footnotes. She is holding up a mug that has a yellow warning sign on it containing a black exclamation mark. The text reads: Fresh AI Hell.

Emily Bender, a white woman with curly brown hair, glasses and a big smile, wears a red t-shirt that reads: Always Read The Footnotes. She is holding up a black mug printed with white text that reads: Tearing Down MATHY MATHS Since 2022

Introducing…new Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 merch!

Here’s our very own @emilymbender.bsky.social modelling our “Always Read The Footnotes” t-shirt along with Fresh AI Hell and Mathy Maths mugs!

To get your own, and to check out the rest of our swag, head to: store.dair-institute.org