Book Reviews
Book Review: The Ethical Algorithm and A Human Algorithm
Two buttoned-down AI scientists and a ‘can’t we all just get along?’ hippie walk into a bar . . .
OK, please forgive the click-bait opening sentence, but after reading these two very different books about the very same subject, I couldn’t help myself. Both books purport to address a compelling question: Given that algorithms increasingly control our lives, can they be designed to incorporate humane values up front — as opposed to simply seeking, after-the-fact, to regulate their dangerous outcomes?
TOOLS AND WEAPONS: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age
Leaders in both tech and government will be talking about this book, and grappling with it, for a very long time. And it often surprises — not because its opinions are startling, but because hearing them from a tech leader is so uncommon.
THE MIND AND THE MACHINE: What it Means to Be Human, and Why It Matters
What does it mean to be human? Or, put more narrowly in light of the advances of AI and neuroscience, should we think of humans as simply a complex form of biochemical computer? Is the human mind, including its sense of self-consciousness, really nothing more than the...
DEEP MEDICINE: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again
It turns out that schizophrenia is not just a medical condition, it’s also an apt way to think about Eric Topol’s new book, DEEP MEDICINE: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again. Schizophrenia, after all, is characterized by inconsistent and...
THE BIG NINE: How the Tech Titans & Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity
In The Big Nine, Amy Webb visits the AI-driven near-future world to which nine tech titans — and two governments — are together giving birth. More precisely, Webb projects three future scenarios for how AI development is likely to play out. Only one — and clearly the...
AI and Job Loss (Kai-Fu Lee Echoes the Wisdom of Jesus)
There is growing concern about an AI-driven future in which there aren’t enough jobs to go around. Not just a shortage of good jobs, mind you, but a shortage of jobs, period. A swelling chorus of economists and other experts foresee a future in which highly-skilled,...