Keynote Presentation: Professor Emily M. Bender - The AI Con

Join us on Tuesday 1 July, 6pm at RMIT Storey Hall for a special event with Professor Emily M. Bender and Dr Kobi Leins as they unpack AI myths, explore tech misinformation, and discuss The AI Con. Includes keynote, conversation, and book sales.

Join us for an illuminating evening with renowned linguist Professor Emily M. Bender, who will offer a concise and accessible primer on how chatbots really work—revealing the linguistic sleight of hand behind the so-called “AI revolution.” Drawing on what linguists know about language and how we use it, this talk demystifies the technologies dominating today’s headlines.

Following the presentation, Dr Kobi Leins will join Professor Bender in conversation to discuss her latest book, The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want. Together, they will unpack how AI hype fuels misinformation, obscures power dynamics, and what we can do to resist it—at work, in policy, and in everyday life.

Event starts at 6pm, followed by a book sales. Free entry, but bookings are essential. 

Emily M. Bender is a Professor of Linguistics and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Computer Science and the Information School at the University of Washington, where she has been on the faculty since 2003. Her research interests include multilingual grammar engineering, computational semantics, and the societal impacts of language technology. In her public scholarship, Bender brings linguistic insights to lay audiences to cut through the hype about "AI" and facilitate understanding of the actual functionality of the systems being sold under that name.

This event is part of Transdisciplinarity for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence: Aligning Expertise in Social Sciences and Computing Research - a two-day workshop event sponsored by Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA), RMIT's Centre for Human-AI Information Environments (CHAI), RMIT's Social Change Enabling Impact Platform and Readings Pty Ltd.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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