How to Study the Phenomenon of Tech Hype

Audio of this conversation is available via your favorite podcast service.

AI hype is everywhere, and the CEOs of many tech firms are promising that the tech will soon eclipse human intelligence. The trillions in investment towards this goal and the massive deployment of capital and the human and natural resources it purchases both requires this kind of hype and causes it to compound.

Today’s guests are studying this phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, building out a line of inquiry they call "Hype Studies." It's the subject of an occasional series of contributions to Tech Policy Press.

Guests include:

• Jascha Bareis, a postdoctoral political scientist at the University of Fribourg;
• Andreu Belsunces Gonçalves, a sociologist of design and technology pursuing a PhD at the Tecnopolítica unit of the Open University of Catalonia;
• Marché Arends, a South African independent investigative journalist.

A transcript is forthcoming.