Evil Robots, Killer Computers, and Other Myths

This book is a must read if you’re interested in AI at all. It is the perfect mix of information and humour which I enjoyed as it felt less like a textbook. The author explains the types of AI ans the applications of AI in the real world and explains what’s truly happening while taking the fear of “AI taking over the world” away. I really enjoyed how the contents of this book was really important and interesting to learn about while being an enjoyable read.

On the one hand, you can watch a multitude of documentaries, read books and articles on the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), robots replacing our jobs, and computers getting so intelligent that the human brain will lose its unique capabilities. On the other hand, we're dealing with flaws in autonomous cars, chatbots, and automatic translation of difficult texts. Steven Schwartz, a veteran when it comes down to academic research and entrepreneurship in AI, presents a reality check in Evil Robots, Killer Computers, and Other Myths: The Truth About AI and the Future of Humanity.

He digs into the hype cycles around AI, the status quo of e.g. facial recognition, self-driving cars, industrial robots, machine translation, chatbots, deep fake video, audio, and messages. Despite the technological achievements, the prediction that it will take decades, centuries if not millennia to become on par with the human brain, still holds. We don't have to fear Terminator-like scenarios or robots taking over all our jobs. AI is overrated in the short term, while abuse of technology, think of armed drones, surveillance cameras coupled with algorithms that determine who's trusted and who's not, coded bias and explicit racism built into the computer code is so serious, that you should be glad that legislators and public opinion do matter.

Despite a couple of periods disappeared from the radar screen, AI is here to stay. We'd better learn what facts and fiction is, and what to accept and what not regarding AI.

I loved how the author explained some of the myths that exist on social media and in movies and how the reality is far from what we see depicted in the sources of these myths that surround us. The author used simple terms so everyone can understand the book and even explained a bit of the history of AI and some of the technical terms.

Understanding computers is hard. Understanding AI is hard. Combine both and you have a recipe for misunderstandings that can affect not just those involved in the industry but society as a whole.

As an example take the trolley problem as it applies to self driving cars. Simply put, how do you decide between multiple inevitable deaths and what are the factors to take into account when you do? Add in the complication that the decision is to be made by computer and you reach the stage where manufacturers may simply take the decision to protect the owners of the cars they make and forget the rest. Wonderful if you're in the car, less helpful if you're not.

Or how about the "Skynet" style scare stories that regularly feature in the media? Are they possible?

Understanding these types of issue is the aim of this book and it gives a balanced, insightful overview of the challenges of AI without descending into tabloid style scaremongering. As such it is recommended as an excellent overview of what is possible, and what is not, in AI.

Well, with this one I learned that computers will probably keep getting better and better, but will NOT take over the world. That’s good to know. Lol ......good little book to learn all the ins and outs of artificial intelligence. And the myths. If you’re at all interested in AI, this read is for you.