Rather a boring and uninspiring read. The economics presented are indeed simple, most concepts are touched only superficially.

The core of general AI rests in its ability to predict. Decision making at any level requires some form of prediction, thus making AI useful to organizations. Predictions are learned by past examples so historical examples are easy for AI to predict, but anything new is not.

The book is divided into 5 parts; Predictions, Decision Making, Tools, Strategy, and Society, and is viewed from an economics point of view. This is key since it would be viewed from businesses in this way too. The more economic value it brings to a company, the more it will be developed and expanded into society.

I plan to read this book again as I thought its unique approach to AI is spot on and needs a deeper dive. I recommend it to anyone interested in this topic as a realistic view into this technology.

3.5

oatila's review

4.0

Mais um livro sobre Inteligência Artificial. Afinal, por que não, né?

Este aqui é bem mais voltado para os mercados e setores da economia que vão ser afetados por computação e como vão ser afetados. É uma discussão bem sóbria sobre o que é substituível ou não, sempre batendo no ponto da diferença entre predição e ação, vai chover/levar um guarda-chuva, para dizer que humanos podem perder as predições para as máquinas, mas ainda vamos ser quem dá as ações.

Começam com a discussão do aumento de computação, como isso vai ficar mais pervasivo conforme fica mais barato e acessível e como AI vai conquistando espaço ou substituindo alternativas anteriores em cada setor. Em seguida, passam por cada parte que vai ser alterada, predições, decisões, ferramentas, estratégias e sociedade. Na ordem de como a informação vai sendo usada, de melhores predições a melhores decisões com consequências em cada setor.

Cai na categoria de livros "positivos" sobre o futuro dos trabalhos, aqueles que acham que com mais informação as pessoas continuam empregadas e tomam mais decisões ou decisões mais rapidamente. Apesar de proporem um livro voltado a negócios, achei interessante como uma discussão sobre AI em geral, e não sei dizer se o aconselhamento que dão para negócios é bom.
lucasthepaul's profile picture

lucasthepaul's review

4.0

Interesting introduction to AI. As an economics student I enjoyed their point of view on this topic. Although I would've loved to see more of the technical side of AI, I know that their focus lied on other aspects of prediction machines. Still I'd recommend it to others others to get a basic view on the history of AI and how it could change future aspects of corporate businesses.
raphaelmako's profile picture

raphaelmako's review

3.75
informative reflective medium-paced

Some interesting ideas, however, given the fact it was written in 2018, I worry there are some concepts they introduce that are not as relevant today. 
pevansgreenwood's profile picture

pevansgreenwood's review

3.0

This book is one of those “assuming a perfectly spherical cow” things.

If we reduce AI down to ML and ignore the messy realities of the real world (i.e. assume that the curse of dimensionality isn’t a thing and the only limitation on creating perfect predictions is access to sufficient training data), then we get the analysis in this book. It paints a picture of a world where the only barrier to self-driving cars is a sufficiently rich training set so that the AI can predict what a driver would do, This is not a world where pesky problems of feature engineering, embodyment, real world resource constraints, or even ethical concerns will make development of many AI solution challenging, if not impossible.

On the plus side the book acknowledges the difference between ‘decisions’ and ‘judgement’, though it defines judgement very narrowly, and it realises that jobs will be redefined rather than eliminated in many cases. But then it fails to realise that in a world where prediction is cheap, then managing the unpredictable is where all the value is (i.e. business exceptions), and the more we improve prediction the more valuable the unpredictable becomes, it doesn’t even acknowledge the many things that might limit prediction, and completely ignores the importance of learning by doing at the operational coal face.

An overly simplistic and narrowly focused book that will soon be dated.

dairy_devino's review

5.0

A really interesting perspective on AI tech from an economics lens

derekbjohnston's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

Outdated

tygaribay's review

4.0

This is a pretty light volume aimed at helping mostly non-technical people understand how AI will affect them and their businesses. In traditional biz book style, the chapters are short and pointed, with bullet-list summaries of key points at the end, just so no one can miss them. I was hoping for more forward looking thoughts, but I guess that is not what this book is trying to do. As a primer on what AI is and how it works, not a bad book. Lots of good ideas about how to think about integrating AI into a business.