You’re not bad at remembering drug names. You’re listening in on a conversation you were never the audience for.
Ed Bennett and Chris Boyer take on the engineered weirdness of prescription drug names, inspired by a recent 99% Invisible episode on the topic. The visual silhouettes, the syllable structures, the FDA-cleared distinctiveness, all of it is built for the pharmacist on the prescription pad, not the patient on the couch. A 1997 FDA broadcast advertising guidance turned that internal communication into the TV ad you’re now supposed to memorize. Bimzelx and Ebglyss aren’t trying to sound like sci-fi villains. The namespace is running out.
The SNAT Book Club continues with Chapters 3 and 4 of The AI Con by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna. Chapter 3 traces the hidden labor inside every AI system. Chapter 4 follows that same machinery into a New York City chatbot that told residents it was legal for landlords to discriminate, and into UnitedHealth’s nH Predict algorithm with a 90% error rate, used anyway.
Tech rec: the 99% Invisible podcast itself. Especially good for the healthcare folks.
In the AI test, Ed fed the full set of drug naming rules to Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini and asked each to name a hypothetical cat allergy shot. One suggestion accidentally invoked a 1979 horror film.
Letters running out. Labor running cheap. Care running dry. Surprise, it’s not a toaster.
References & Further Reading
Drug Naming
- 99% Invisible Episode 667, “Ask Your Doctor About”: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/667-ask-your-doctor-about/
- FDA Draft Guidance, Consumer-Directed Broadcast Advertisements, August 1997 (Federal Register): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1997-08-12/html/97-21291.htm
- GAO Report on FDA Oversight of DTC Advertising Since the 1997 Guidance: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-03-177.pdf
The AI Con (Chapters 3 and 4)
- The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna, Harper, 2025: https://thecon.ai/
- The Markup: NYC’s MyCity AI Chatbot Still Active Despite Encouraging Illegal Behavior: https://themarkup.org/news/2024/04/02/malfunctioning-nyc-ai-chatbot-still-active-despite-widespread-evidence-its-encouraging-illegal-behavior
- The Markup: Mamdani to Kill the NYC AI Chatbot We Caught Telling Businesses to Break the Law: https://themarkup.org/artificial-intelligence/2026/01/30/mamdani-to-kill-the-nyc-ai-chatbot-we-caught-telling-businesses-to-break-the-law
- STAT News: UnitedHealth Pushed Employees to Follow an Algorithm to Cut Off Medicare Patients’ Rehab Care: https://www.statnews.com/2023/11/14/unitedhealth-class-action-lawsuit-algorithm-medicare-advantage/
- CBS News: UnitedHealth Lawsuit on nH Predict Algorithm: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/unitedhealth-lawsuit-ai-deny-claims-medicare-advantage-health-insurance-denials/
Find Us
- Chris Boyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisboyer/
- Ed Bennett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edbennett/
- Chris Boyer website: http://www.christopherboyer.com
- Ed Bennett on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/edbennett.bsky.social
- Chris Boyer on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisboyer.bsky.social
