Tackling AI Hyping

Abstract

The introduction of a new generation of AI systems has kicked off another wave of AI hype. Now that AI systems have added the ability to produce new content to their predictive capabilities, extreme excitement about their alleged capabilities and opportunities is matched only by long held fears about job loss and machine control.

We typically understand the dynamics of AI hype to be something that happens to us, but in this commentary, we propose to flip the script. We suggest that AI hype is not a social fact, but a widely shared practice. We outline some negative implications of this practice and suggest how these can be mitigated, especially with regards to shifting ways of knowing and learning about AI, in the classroom and beyond. Even though pedagogical efforts (broadly understood) have benefited from AI hyping (there is now more varied AI training than ever), such efforts can also help minimize the impacts of hyping on the public’s credulity toward extravagant claims made about AI’s potential benefits and dangers.

Below, we consider steps that can be taken to address this issue and illustrate pathways for more holistic AI educational approaches that participate to a lesser degree in the practice of AI hyping. We contend that designing better AI futures will require that AI hyping be blunted to enable grounded debates about the ways that AI systems impact people’s lives both now and in the near future.