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funny
informative
medium-paced
Disclaimer: Apparently I find AI gaffs much more hilarious than the average person does. Does this mean I’m more human than you?
Probably, yes.
This book gives a very accessible rundown of how artificial intelligence works. Featured are the embarrassing biases it exhibits, the toddler-like shortcuts it takes, and the loopholes it exploits. More importantly, author Janelle Shane explains why these things happen. And perhaps most importantly, she writes with clarity, candor, and a healthy dose of humor.
Just a teaser: At one point, Shane re-trains an AI that generates metal band names to instead generate ice cream flavors, and the awkward in-between phase yields such gems as: Swirl of Hell, Person Cream, and Blood Pecan.
For a society immersed in doomsday robot science fiction, this is a nice counterbalance, as Shane repeatedly highlights AI’s limitations. More serious readers might find her tone too light, but I found the balance of technical information and humorous foibles to be absolutely perfect. My attention never wavered. Just a delight.
Probably, yes.
This book gives a very accessible rundown of how artificial intelligence works. Featured are the embarrassing biases it exhibits, the toddler-like shortcuts it takes, and the loopholes it exploits. More importantly, author Janelle Shane explains why these things happen. And perhaps most importantly, she writes with clarity, candor, and a healthy dose of humor.
Just a teaser: At one point, Shane re-trains an AI that generates metal band names to instead generate ice cream flavors, and the awkward in-between phase yields such gems as: Swirl of Hell, Person Cream, and Blood Pecan.
For a society immersed in doomsday robot science fiction, this is a nice counterbalance, as Shane repeatedly highlights AI’s limitations. More serious readers might find her tone too light, but I found the balance of technical information and humorous foibles to be absolutely perfect. My attention never wavered. Just a delight.
This is a layman’s introduction to how AI works and what it can and cannot do. It’s a really fun read - it’s full of really silly examples of AI’s messing up in hilarious ways (such as an AI that was told to move from point A to point B, and it decided the best way to get there was to make itself as tall as the distance between the two points and then fall over).
The big takeaways for me were (1) that even AI researchers don’t always understand how AI works, and (2) that AI is nowhere near as magical and capable as AI companies would have you think.
AI is already a big part of our daily lives, and is going to continue to be more and more important. It's also important that we understand what AI is and what it can and cannot do - right now a lot of tech companies are making a lot of money by selling us an AI-driven future where everything is easy and computers can solve all of our problems, but this book makes it very (hilariously) clear that an AI-driven future is going to be weird and buggy, and that AI has the potential to be very problematic if not used correctly.
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
So I first encountered Janelle Shane when reading technical articles at work. One of them referred to her blog aiweirdness.com, and I had to go check it out (if you have not seen it, go there now and check it out, I will wait). Anyway, shortly after I started reading the most recent blog post I found myself laughing out loud at work. So, I laugh out loud when joking with friends, but usually not when reading. If I find things funny I might smile, I might snort, but not Laught Out Loud. Here I was laughing so hard I could barely speak,, in my office. Woof.
So this book was just as entertaining as the blog. It also explains AI in ways that us folks without computer science degrees. It is a real education on what AI can do, and a whole lot of what it can't do. Anyone concerned about the "Rise of the Machines" mentioned in the Terminator movies should feel reassured by this book. It is also a warning about over-reliance on AI, and how bias can be unintentionally incorporated into AI.
I recommend that EVERYONE read this book. In this day and age I have heard the virtues of AI touted by the government, by corporations, by vendors trying to sell their product and impress people with the "AI" buzzword. This book educates you in an entertaining way exactly what AI is capable of, and gives the reader the tools to see through the hype and ask pertinent questions about whatever AI bill of goods is being sold.
Also, this book is just laugh out loud funny. And the blog. You must read Janelle Shane's blog.
So this book was just as entertaining as the blog. It also explains AI in ways that us folks without computer science degrees. It is a real education on what AI can do, and a whole lot of what it can't do. Anyone concerned about the "Rise of the Machines" mentioned in the Terminator movies should feel reassured by this book. It is also a warning about over-reliance on AI, and how bias can be unintentionally incorporated into AI.
I recommend that EVERYONE read this book. In this day and age I have heard the virtues of AI touted by the government, by corporations, by vendors trying to sell their product and impress people with the "AI" buzzword. This book educates you in an entertaining way exactly what AI is capable of, and gives the reader the tools to see through the hype and ask pertinent questions about whatever AI bill of goods is being sold.
Also, this book is just laugh out loud funny. And the blog. You must read Janelle Shane's blog.
A really fun and decently accessible read on AI. To be fair, there were a few instances where even I, semi-knowledgeable comp sci person, didn't understand what Shane was explaining. However, her plethora of real-life examples, clear explanations of what AI is good at and what it isn't and the various issues that can arise, and the adorable AI drawings made this great! Recommend to anyone who wants to know a little more about the black box that is AI.
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
Humorous and sometimes scary stories about AI - where it's been, where it's going, inherent biases, how we can improve AI. This is not a how-to, but a general overview of AI and what it can and can't do. We don't need to fear the AI overlords in the near future.
3.5 stars. This was funny and enjoyable, but it was more like a series of stories of how AI's have failed. It touched on some overarching topics, often very repetitively, but it didn't go into much depth. It's basically an entertaining listicle.