Claim · 2023-08-12 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

The essay by Bender and Hanna dated 12 August 2023 states that wrongful arrests, surveillance, defamation and deepfake pornography, not the imagined potential to wipe out humanity, are the real threat of AI, and urges regulators to look to research on present harms.

One recorded claim. The claim panel gives its qualification, the source passages with their place in each source, and how it was checked.

What it connects

AI Causes Real Harm. Let's Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype → articulates → Present harms deserve priority

Where it appears

Arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI →

Claim and evidence

AI Causes Real Harm. Let's Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hypearticulates ↓Present harms deserve priority

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 2023-08-12 · publication Records dated 2023 →
Wording attested: 2026-10-29. The page text refers to events after its stated publication date; the wording of the August 2023 version was not compared.
Role: Articulation
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction

Scope and limitsThe served text appears revised after August 2023; the quoted wording is attested only from the retrieval of 2026-10-29.

The evidence 02

primary sourceSupports the claim

AI Causes Real Harm. Let's Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype

Scientific American (online) · 2023-08-12

Cite the original source

Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.

Source excerpt

“These issues, and not the imagined potential to wipe out humanity, are the real threat of artificial intelligence.”

Location in source Paragraph 1

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

Source details and check notes

Authors: Emily M. Bender; Alex Hanna
Version: Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 3947c1637239e58554893a54d08294b806749fb8f043aefbac28a134882f84d4). Current web page, datePublished 2023-08-12; the text refers to the summer of 2023 in the past tense and calls Altman "embattled", so the served text may have been revised after first publication. The cross-family check retrieved it again on 2026-10-31; the bytes differ, and the check compared the quoted passages.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-29
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna, “AI Causes Real Harm. Let's Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype”, 2023-08-12.
Reuse: No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution.
Check notes: Candidate pack passage, arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI (research/risk-debate). The quotation (18 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. A cross-family machine check (2026-10-31, item 69) re-read the record’s source and found the quotation and stance supported. No human editorial review.

primary sourceSupports the claim

AI Causes Real Harm. Let's Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype

Scientific American (online) · 2023-08-12

Cite the original source

Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.

Source excerpt

“Effective regulation of AI needs grounded science that investigates real harms, not glorified press releases about existential risks”

Location in source Standfirst

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

Source details and check notes

Authors: Emily M. Bender; Alex Hanna
Version: Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 3947c1637239e58554893a54d08294b806749fb8f043aefbac28a134882f84d4). Current web page, datePublished 2023-08-12; the text refers to the summer of 2023 in the past tense and calls Altman "embattled", so the served text may have been revised after first publication. The cross-family check retrieved it again on 2026-10-31; the bytes differ, and the check compared the quoted passages.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-29
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna, “AI Causes Real Harm. Let's Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype”, 2023-08-12.
Reuse: No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution.
Check notes: Candidate pack passage, arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI (research/risk-debate). The quotation (18 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. A cross-family machine check (2026-10-31, item 69) re-read the record’s source and found the quotation and stance supported. No human editorial review.

Status and meaning

Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor. An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.

Relation. A passage of the document meets the proposition’s criterion. The record documents what the text states, in its register (fiction and satire are labelled); it is not evidence that the proposition is true and implies no influence on or from another text.

Date. Date of publication, as the source gives it.

Record ID rd-r12-bender-hanna-2023-real-harm