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

01 Jul 2025 - 03 Jul 2025
06:00pm - 07:30pm
FREE
Melbourne City
RMIT Storey Hall, Level 5, 016.05.1, Building 16

Book now

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.

Related events

Melbourne Fringe Opening Night Gala

29 Sep 2026

Beneath the glowing arches of RMIT University's iconic venue, The Capitol, the Melbourne Fringe Opening Night Gala crackles with life. A 90-minute spectacle of everything Fringe does best: bold ideas, high-voltage performances, and independent art with heat you can feel from the back row.

Andrew O'Hagan: On Friendship

06 Oct 2026

Acclaimed author Andrew O'Hagan joins Marieke Hardy to explore the friendships, encounters and connections that give our lives meaning.

Queering the Music Video

16 Oct 2026

The Capitol

Join us at The Capitol for the premiere of three revolutionary d/Deaf-accessible music videos from 'The Legend of Queen Kong', followed by a star-studded panel discussion exploring queer music, film and access.

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.

Learn more about our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

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