The AI Delusion

Name: The AI Delusion
Brand: Tantor Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Gary Smith
ISBN: 9781977330611

Author: Gary Smith

Narrator: Eric Michael Summerer

Unabridged: 8 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/27/2018

Categories: Nonfiction, Computers, Technology & Engineering, Computers & Technology, Artificial Intelligence

Synopsis

We live in an incredible period in history. The Computer Revolution may be even more life-changing than the Industrial Revolution. We can do things with computers that could never be done before, and computers can do things for us that could never be done before. But our love of computers should not cloud our thinking about their limitations.

We are told that computers are smarter than humans and that data mining can identify previously unknown truths, or make discoveries that will revolutionize our lives. Our lives may well be changed, but not necessarily for the better. Computers are very good at discovering patterns, but are useless in judging whether the unearthed patterns are sensible because computers do not think the way humans think.

We fear that super-intelligent machines will decide to protect themselves by enslaving or eliminating humans. But the real danger is not that computers are smarter than us, but that we think computers are smarter than us and, so, trust computers to make important decisions for us.

The AI Delusion explains why we should not be intimidated into thinking that computers are infallible, that data-mining is knowledge discovery, and that black boxes should be trusted.

About Gary Smith

Gary Smith is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics at Pomona College. He received his PhD in economics from Yale University and was an assistant professor there for seven years. He has won two teaching awards and written (or coauthored) more than eighty academic papers and twelve books, including Standard Deviations: Flawed Assumptions, Tortured Data, and Other Ways to Lie With Statistics, What the Luck?: The Surprising Role of Chance in Our Everyday Lives, and Money Machine: The Surprisingly Simple Power of Value Investing. His research has been featured by Bloomberg Radio Network, CNBC, The Brian Lehrer Show, Forbes, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Motley Fool, Newsweek, and BusinessWeek.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian

This is a very important little book ('little' isn't derogatory - it's just quite short and in a small format) - it gets to the heart of the problem with applying artificial intelligence techniques to large amounts of data and thinking that somehow this will result in wisdom. Gary Smith as an economi......more

Goodreads review by AdamWho

The AI part of this book could fit into a sentence; computers use statistics and statistics without context is nonsense. The remaining 99% of the book is a (sometimes verbatim) repeat of the material in "Standard Deviations", which is a better written book. At no time does the author actually discuss......more

Goodreads review by Dan

An econometrics professor's understanding of AI - while in principle correct and in the right direction, limited and not very deep. A much better title for this book would be something like: “the statistical pitfalls of data mining techniques - for college students”. The AI project implies far more......more

Goodreads review by Reinis

While an important premise, arguing that the AI is not the panacea to all the worlds issues and it has problems, that should be discussed, it falls short of its goal. I guess I'm giving 3 stars to it just because it argues this point. The author mostly discusses the pitfalls of statistical analysis,......more

Goodreads review by J.

Written from the perspective of an economist, The AI Delusion seeks to present reason why we ought not fall to the trap of thinking artificial intelligence is infallible. Divided into twelve relatively short chapters, this book is both suitable for and aimed at non-experts in AI. Smith starts with m......more