Emily M. Bender

Linguist at the University of Washington, co-author of the “Stochastic Parrots” paper and of The AI Con, who argues that language models do not understand and that AI hype, not extinction, is the harm to fight now.

Roles

2003 – presentProfessor, Department of Linguistics, University of WashingtonAlso Faculty Director of the MS in Computational Linguistics and Director of the Computational Linguistics Laboratory.Source →
2024 – 2024President, Association for Computational LinguisticsServed on the ACL Executive Board 2022–2025 as VP-elect, VP, President and Past President.Source →

On the record

7 Jan 2026 · Op-ed · Tech Policy Press
"AI" is not your friend. Nor is it an intelligent tutor, an empathetic ear, or a helpful assistant.
Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Washington at the time
With Nanna Inie; argues anthropomorphic language "over-sells a system which is likely to under-deliver" and hides human accountability.
We Need to Talk About How We Talk About 'AI' →
1 Jun 2025 · Interview · Tech Policy Press
It's magical thinking. It's utter magical thinking. We know what we need to do about the climate crisis.
Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Washington at the time
On the claim that AI will solve climate change, in an interview about The AI Con (Harper, May 2025), written with Alex Hanna.
Taking on the AI Con →
31 Mar 2023 · Statement · DAIR Institute
It is dangerous to distract ourselves with a fantasized AI-enabled utopia or apocalypse which promises either a "flourishing" or "potentially catastrophic" future. … The harms from so-called AI are real and present and follow from the acts of people and corporations deploying automated systems.
Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Washington at the time
Joint statement with Timnit Gebru and Angelina McMillan-Major responding to the Future of Life Institute's pause letter.
Statement from the listed authors of Stochastic Parrots on the "AI pause" letter →
Mar 2021 · Paper · ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT '21)
we ask whether enough thought has been put into the potential risks associated with developing them and strategies to mitigate these risks.
Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Washington at the time
From "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?", of which Bender is first author; quoted from the draft by MIT Technology Review on 4 December 2020.
We read the paper that forced Timnit Gebru out of Google. Here's what it says. →