The AI Con

How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want

By: Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna

Narrated by: Jade Wheeler

Brought to you by Penguin.

A smart, incisive take-down of the bogus claims being made about so-called ‘artificial intelligence’, exposing the real harm these technologies do to our jobs, health, society and environment, who stands to gain from them, and how to fight back.

Is AI going to take over the world? Have scientists created an artificial lifeform that can think on its own? Is it going to replace all our jobs, even creative ones, like doctors, teachers and care-workers? Are we about to enter an age where computers are better than humans at everything?

The answers to these questions, as the expert authors of The AI Con make clear, are 'no', 'they wish', 'LOL', and 'definitely not'. In fact, these fears are all symptoms of the hype being used by tech corporations to justify data theft, motivate surveillance capitalism, and devalue human creativity so they can replace meaningful work with jobs that treat people like machines. Meanwhile, across healthcare, education, media, government and law-enforcement, ‘AI’ products are already being introduced that are unreliable, ineffective, unjust and dangerous.

Packed with real-world examples, pithy arguments and expert insights, The AI Con arms you to spot AI hype in all its guises, expose the exploitation and power-grabs it aims to hide, and push back against it at work and in your daily life.

© Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critic reviews

The blizzard of excitement, misinformation and pure hype around AI has driven many of us to want an honest guide to both its promises and its limitations as well as its bizarre history. If, like me, you’re one of those many, you need to read this book. It’s clear, objective and comprehensible. It’s essential reading (Brian Eno)

The AI Con takes the thunder out of the dark cloud in our technological future. I am so grateful for the reality check, in Emily’s and Alex’s inimitable style. A must-read for those who don’t want to believe the hype (Aleks Krotoski, presenter of The Digital Human)

A powerful antidote to the AI hype that dominates tech writing today. The authors show that the development of modern labour saving technologies is not neutral. Instead, these technologies will serve to deepen existing inequalities, and further 'enshittify' life and work for the vast majority of people (Grace Blakeley, author of Vulture Capitalism)

A must-read. Drs. Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender cut through the dizzying hype to provide the clearest picture yet of what AI is, what it is not, and why none of us need to accept it being shoved down our throats (Timnit Gebru, Founder and Executive Director at The Distributed AI Research Institute)

A book to inoculate your mind against Big Tech's AI utopian hype and the resulting dystopian dread (Yanis Varoufakis)

Artificial intelligence is going to reshape our economy and society. And we'd all better get used to it, right? Wrong, say the authors of this incredible book. This is a truly eye-opening book that will be an indispensable 'field manual' for those who want to fight for a more humane economy and a better society (Ha-Joon Chang, author of Economics: The User's Guide and Edible Economics)

A fascinating and thought-provoking analysis of one of the most charged debates in the world (Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus)

Bender and Hanna write with absolute authority and incredible wit and verve. Come for the piercing observations; leave with the tools to slice your way through the absurdist narratives that prop up the AI industry and to hold it accountable (Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI)

A powerful and timely deep dive into what the AI hype cycle is REALLY about, why it's bound to crash, and what we can all do to protect ourselves from it. An absolute must-read! (Karla Ortiz, artist and artist activist)

With irreverence and razor-sharp analysis, Bender and Hanna show how tech giants are using AI as a cover for their real agenda. This isn’t just about debunking myths – it’s about reclaiming control over the future (Ruha Benjamin, author of Viral Justice)

Reassuring and enlightening

This was an interesting and enlightening read to someone that had a limited understanding of “AI”. It removes the mystical facade that many AI developers try to present to the public of what the technology is. The data and content that these tools take from the public and original content creators and repurpose as “original” content for the monetisation of a few tech companies should concern us all, let alone the increasing automation and digital surveillance that comes with this technology as the developers hunt for more data and governments potentially can abuse its and their power. The book made the case for all these concerns and dispelled the sensationalist and doomsayer headlines that those in or linked to the industry keep spouting about AI as an existential risk.

My only criticism would be the political views which come through too often. I can see that I have different more conservative political views, but at the same time agree with the authors on many of the concerns relating to the continued growth of AI. If there is a further update or new version I would just ask that some of the more political leaning views are excluded and a more objective apolitical analysis is provided. For example, I don’t believe climate change is an existential risk, but I do still have concerns that the huge power requirements currently required to power the continued growth of AI is currently not sustainable and will deplete the earths resources and cannot be good.

Nonetheless, for those who have concerns about “AI” and the risk of a growing automated digital cage that we appear to be moving towards, both for themselves, as well as their children and grandchildren, this is a very informative and helpful read, demystifying the “AI” hype that surrounds us and some steps of how to push back, even in just little ways.