Why We Fear AI

Half the Answer

Trent and Caitlin speak with cognitive scientist, linguist, and AI researcher Hagen Blix about his book, co-authored with Ingeborg Glimmer, called “Why We Fear AI: On the Interpretation of Nightmares.” What do those selling AI-branded products have to gain from telling everybody that AI could take over the world? What do regular people think about its use in our industries and lives? What does it tell us about the world we live in and our relationship to capital, our governments, and each other?

References:

Hagen’s book https://commonnotions.org/why-we-fear-ai?srsltid=AfmBOopmfLto0hDIbI4L9Cr5XUWkhoNmT3azu6FSgWvJkboHZF08pNCg

Marc Andreessen comments https://pmarca.substack.com/p/why-ai-will-save-the-world

Elon Musk comments https://cnn.com/2024/05/23/tech/elon-musk-ai-your-job/index.html

Stephen Hawking comments https://cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-best-or-worst-thing-to-happen-to-humanity-stephen-hawking-launches-centre-for-the-future-of

Open Letter on AI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_letter_on_artificial_intelligence_(2015)

25% of Facebook posts are AI originality.ai/blog/ai-facebook-posts-study

Instagram algorithms https://benzinga.com/news/24/04/38420928/meta-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-more-than-50-of-the-content-people-see-on-instagram-is-now-ai-recommended

Rat image https://scienceintegritydigest.com/2024/02/15/the-rat-with-the-big-balls-and-enormous-penis-how-frontiers-published-a-paper-with-botched-ai-generated-images/

Papers with LLM phrases https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2024/03/20/the-latest-crisis-is-the-research-literature-overrun-with-chatgpt-and-llm-generated-articles/

Willy Wonka Experience https://themarysue.com/what-happened-at-the-glasgow-willy-wonka-experience-explained/

Cuomo housing plan https://hellgatenyc.com/andrew-cuomo-chatgpt-housing-plan/

Bad tariff math https://theverge.com/news/642620/trump-tariffs-formula-ai-chatgpt-gemini-claude-grok

DOGE dystopia https://cnn.com/2025/03/04/tech/doge-ai-government-cuts-expert-concerns/index.html

DOGE surveillance https://reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/musks-doge-using-ai-snoop-us-federal-workers-sources-say-2025-04-08/

xAI generators https://theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/elon-musk-xai-memphis

carcinogenic gas generators https://catf.us/2022/09/new-report-finds-heightened-cancer-risk-14-million-people-toxic-air-pollution-emitted-us-oil-gas-sector/

The Gospel https://theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/the-gospel-how-israel-uses-ai-to-select-bombing-targets

Lavender and Where’s Daddy? https://vox.com/future-perfect/24151437/ai-israel-gaza-war-hamas-artificial-intelligence

Andreas Malm: Fossil Capital https://versobooks.com/products/135-fossil-capital

Brian Merchant: Blood in the Machine https://hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/

Robot image by Radio Saigon https://www.flickr.com/photos/34928082@N05/3396619316