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120 reviews for:
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna
4.13 AVERAGE
120 reviews for:
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna
4.13 AVERAGE
informative
fast-paced
Really demystifies what AI actually is: a text prediction algorithm surrounded by hype and endless venture capital. The reality of AI is that it is being used to make all of our lives shittier - by killing the environment and being shoved down our throats in seemingly every setting - healthcare, jobs, art, music, education, and science.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
informative
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
Everyone should read this book. We all need to understand what is being marketed to us as “AI” better and learn how to push back on it.
informative
sad
medium-paced
I give this a 4 out of 5 because it has helped me to fill out my intuitions about "AI" with facts and sourced stories. I could not give it more, though, because it left me numb in a similar fashion like the unhabitable earth/we are the weather did back then as regards to climate change : I come off of it feeling as fatalistic as ever.
In other words: A book like this doesn't do enough - which is an unkind thing to say - to let me see a future beyond just rejection of the described present extended into the future. Maybe that's asking too much of a contemporary critique of the AI-industry.
One interesting note: I am a programmer and I have found LLMs to be helpful at times. It's interesting how little this book focuses on LLMs for programming. And I do agree: I see _much_ bigger problems with the technology in law, medicine, administration, etc. I can't deny, though, that I would have liked a little more substance when it comes to the field of software development which is also full of hype, but I think it's not as clear-cut that "AI" is a net negative here.
In other words: A book like this doesn't do enough - which is an unkind thing to say - to let me see a future beyond just rejection of the described present extended into the future. Maybe that's asking too much of a contemporary critique of the AI-industry.
One interesting note: I am a programmer and I have found LLMs to be helpful at times. It's interesting how little this book focuses on LLMs for programming. And I do agree: I see _much_ bigger problems with the technology in law, medicine, administration, etc. I can't deny, though, that I would have liked a little more substance when it comes to the field of software development which is also full of hype, but I think it's not as clear-cut that "AI" is a net negative here.
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
challenging
informative
fast-paced
The most accessible critique of AI hype I've read so far, it's a good starting point for the curious and mildly skeptical, before diving into Bjarnason's The Intelligence Illusion and McQuillan's Resisting AI.
informative
sad
medium-paced
Written by a linguist and a sociologist, this book contrasts what so-called "artificial intelligence" or AI is and the hype surrounding it. In the process, they provide a litany of much-needed criticisms of the technology, little heard in the mainstream as developers and tech try to cram it into everything. An important book that needs to be read by the majority of people. Highly recommended.