AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference

AI is not always an outstanding performer, the book demystifies the overhyped performances helping to develop a grounded understanding and judicious applications of AI. A must read for anyone interested in AI. Eagerly waiting for the follow up version that is likely to focus on the other side, Possibilities with AI :The Last Invention, that will continue to derive us like invention of a wheel.

Shares some interesting examples. I recommend it.

I got this book recommendation from my friend. It's a very good book to understand how AI is actually used across the board.

This is a different book and convey a different message - AI is not a panacea! The book contains many examples of the false claims and failures of AI. When almost everyone is going in a direction the authors have chosen to go in a different direction which is a bit risky. Companies and individuals are riding on the wave / hype of AI and making windfall gains - from course sellers, marketing professionals and professional scientists. In fact, many hardware (laptop) companies have started selling AI laptops! There few points I want to make about the book. Here are those. 1. Authors make a case that predictions are not possible! This is quite opposite to what hard science (physics) tells us - everything is 100 % predictable if you the initial conditions and laws of dynamics (even in case of quantum mechanics). Authors may need to change their views about prediction. 2. Authors are right that due to lack of a common definition of AI anything can be called an AI and that is a big problem. 3. Authors selectively give examples of cases where AI did not work. This should not consider different from the case of weight loss products or fairness creams in India. 4. AI companies and individuals are not honest this is also a claim but it should not surprise us. It is hard problem to crack that why people should not be dishonest when being dishonest really helps. Look the case of research publications - there are examples of papers being retracted from the prestigious journals. Paid publications are common. 5. I 100 % agree that big tech companies are trying to make profit out of the hype being created - particularly "existential risks" of AI. This book at least makes people aware that all that is yellow and shiny is not gold. I think a detail investigation is needed to look into the marketing material being sold as research work. One of its examples is technical report of GPT4. There is nothing for researchers in that 100+ pages documents. Apart from that benchmarks and performance matrices being used by researchers are cherry picked and completely useless of real-life validation of the models.

Very informative book on the major types of Ai and there origins, purposes and way forward. Provides a lot of live examples where it has not worked and a lot of thoughts. What could be the way forward , thru regulation and working together.

The content of the book justifies its cover headline really well. My knowledge and understanding of the nature of AI is definitely a few levels deeper and grounded better. There are several concrete real life examples to help comprehend how a specific AI solution actually works and where expectations may be unrealistic. One core insight that I now better understand is the fact that you can't try to predict inherently random and chaotic events through AI. You cannot fight reality. Even if something is really predictable, it is often impossible because of the amount of granularity of the data it needs. The book takes the different technologies in the broad category of AI and shows how and why it can actually succeed or fail in real life settings. This is done largely through real examples of failure across legal, health and other areas. So the purpose of the book if simply to get the reader to understand more. If you already have a strong opinion against AI generally, the book may disappoint you since the authors focus on a more factual and reflective analysis rather than attempt to influence to reader to join a specific camp for or against AI. The real surprise was not how for-profit companies game the system, of which there are several examples. A good number of AI solutions sell in the market even when there is absolutely no data on real outcomes in a production setting or no attempt to establish those. What I found really shocking is the tendency to drop scientific rigor by some in the AI research community in the rush to succeed. As a tech professional, I would have liked from the authors a cheat sheet or at least a more structured way to ask the right questions and evaluate any AI solution entering the market. You’ll get smarter about AI, but you won’t walk away with a ready-made tool for your job. So I would give it a 4+

Very well written book. It cleared many myths actively spread by AI companies and AI journalists. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in knowing more about AI.

Authors make a very good point not to conflate predictive systems with generative ones, and list cases of many over stated claims of predictive ai replacing medical staff. They take a neutral view and advocate for more balanced research and pro people policy over pro tech companies. I expected more cases of snake oil and some layman recipe of how to tell snake oil apart from reasonable. Also much more technical detail would have been great as the authors are ml researchers themselves. Overall worth the money and in hardcover so good to keep for life.

Impressive breadth of references provides reassurance that there are many streams of AI and delivers the book's promise in spades - What AI Can Do, Can't and How to Tell the Difference.

An academic overview of what AI is really about and how it could affect our future portrayed with a background of scientific knowledge, removed from the hype and fear that the advances in AI are generating in the media today. Reading this book will empower you with the understanding of our current and future landscape concerning this exciting technology.

Reduced to less than 150 pages, this book could get 2 more stars. Unfortunately, it is not structured and built as an overstretched news article. Too many repetitions and dilution with trivial statements repeated over and over.

Book goes away from hype and criti-hype, explaining in layman terms what AI is feasible to do today, identified serious harms, challenges, dangers but also opportunities that AI field practitioners, researches, enterprises, governments but also each of us as individuals must steer for a better future

Lo que más valoro de este libro es que tiene bases (digamos un 30% del contenido) muy interesantes que no caducarán en los próximos años. El resto es relevante para entender mejor la coyuntura que estamos viviendo.