Is artificial intelligence the future—or just clever marketing? That’s the provocative question explored in The AI Con, a new book by AI critics Emily Bender and Alex Hanna. In a time when AI seems to power everything from your smartphone to your fridge, the duo pulls back the curtain on what they argue is a technology drenched in hype, misdirection, and commercial interest.

Published this month, The AI Con unpacks the smoke and mirrors around today’s generative AI boom and calls out the growing trend of what the authors describe as "AI-washing"—the overuse and overpromise of artificial intelligence to sell products, attract investors, and dominate headlines.

AI Isn’t Magic—It’s Marketing

“Artificial intelligence, if we're being frank, is a con: a bill of goods you are being sold to line someone's pockets,” the authors write. Bender, a linguist at the University of Washington and Time magazine’s AI influencer, and Hanna, a former Google AI ethicist and current research director at DAIR (Distributed AI Research Institute), argue that today’s AI systems are less intelligent than advertised—and far more flawed.

Since the arrival of ChatGPT in late 2022, the tech world has seen a frenzy of AI integration. Companies like Meta, Microsoft, and Google have invested billions, and now nearly every consumer product comes with “AI-powered” branding. But what does that really mean?

According to Bender and Hanna: not much.

Red Flags of AI Hype

In the book, the authors offer practical tips to spot overblown claims. Among the most common:

• Human-like Language: Words like "AI can see or think" are misleading. Machines don’t have brains, and anthropomorphizing AI makes it easier to sell.

• "Super Intelligence" Myths: Be wary of claims that AI can outperform humans in every domain. “We don’t call airplanes superhuman flyers,” Bender notes, “but we do call AI ‘super intelligent.’”

• Lack of Transparency: When companies don’t reveal what data trained their AI or how it was evaluated, that’s a major red flag.

• Buzzword Bingo: If it sounds like a pitch from a sci-fi movie—AGI, sentient bots, post-human futures—question the intent.

Bender and Hanna point out that what we often mistake for brilliance is just statistical prediction at scale. And while that’s useful in some contexts, such as translation or autocomplete, it’s nowhere near the autonomous intelligence people imagine.

The Business Behind the Buzz

At the heart of the AI gold rush is money. The book highlights how VC firms, tech giants, and startups use AI as a magnet for investment. Much of this push is also geopolitically motivated—driven by the race to “beat China” in AI dominance.

But the cost is real. In many cases, AI replaces workers not because it's better, but because it's cheaper. “AI isn’t going to take your job,” Hanna says, “but it will make your job shittier.”

Behind every chatbot or image generator, there are often underpaid workers cleaning data, writing responses, or moderating content to make the system seem more capable than it is.

How to Stay Critical in the Age of AI

So how can you stay informed and avoid falling for the AI con?

• Ask what data went in. If a company won’t disclose training data or sources, approach with caution.

• Demand citations. Stats and performance claims without peer-reviewed sources are unreliable.

• Question functionality. Does the AI actually solve a problem, or is it a flashy feature?

• Remember: AI is not human. It's easy to be tricked into thinking there's a mind behind the screen—there isn’t.

Bottom Line

Bender and Hanna’s message is clear: AI isn’t destiny, and the future is not set in stone. Behind the buzzwords and billion-dollar branding, today’s AI remains a tool—one that requires oversight, ethics, and honesty.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed or skeptical about what AI can really do, The AI Con is a timely and essential read. It challenges us to look past the marketing and focus on what matters most: truth, transparency, and accountability.