by James Muldoon & Mark Graham & Callum Cant ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 6, 2024
A sobering and timely—if sometimes distracted—study of AI.
A look beyond the hype surrounding AI.
As researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute, Muldoon, Graham, and Cant have conducted a series of field studies concerning AI’s tangible inputs and impacts, from human labor to undersea cables to the energy needed for data storage and processing. This synthesis of their studies frames AI as an “extraction machine” that exacerbates rather than corrects centuries of global inequities and patterns of oppression. In each chapter, the authors examine a different, problematic node in the supply chain for AI’s large language models, centering individuals such as data annotators and fulfillment workers to illustrate the intentional opacity and profit-driven domination of a small group of tech companies that are quickly consolidating power in the age of AI. “The technology capitalism develops isn’t neutral,” the authors write. Rather, “it is built in the image of the system that birthed it.” While the authors are well aware of potential harmful long-term implications in AI’s development, use, and manipulation, their mission is not to incite hand wringing over apocalyptic hypotheticals. Rather than wallowing in such fatalism, they focus on how even the present reality of AI erects and strengthens barriers to justice, equality, and creativity, and they set forth recommendations for stepping off the current course. The authors’ own sensitivities and proclivities are evident, including hyperexcitement about the ability of labor unions to lead such a corrective, and many of the alarms they sound are not particular to AI, leading some sections to wander and lose urgency. Still, their look beneath the hood of some of technology’s most heralded advances brings to public awareness critical issues regarding AI, its colonial roots, and its exploitative tendencies that society would do well to discuss and debate sooner rather than later.
A sobering and timely—if sometimes distracted—study of AI.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781639734962
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
Awards & Accolades
Likes
61
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2023
New York Times Bestseller
by Walter Isaacson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2023
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
61
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2023
New York Times Bestseller
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
Share your opinion of this book
More by Walter Isaacson
BOOK REVIEW
by Walter Isaacson with adapted by Sarah Durand
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
BOOK TO SCREEN
Awards & Accolades
Likes
12
Our Verdict
GET IT
New York Times Bestseller
by Emmanuel Acho & Noa Tishby ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 2024
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
12
Our Verdict
GET IT
New York Times Bestseller
Two bestselling authors engage in an enlightening back-and-forth about Jewishness and antisemitism.
Acho, author of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, and Tishby, author of Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, discuss many of the searing issues for Jews today, delving into whether Jewishness is a religion, culture, ethnicity, or community—or all of the above. As Tishby points out, unlike in Christianity, one can be comfortably atheist and still be considered a Jew. She defines Judaism as a “big tent” religion with four main elements: religion, peoplehood, nationhood, and the idea of tikkun olam (“repairing the world through our actions”). She addresses candidly the hurtful stereotypes about Jews (that they are rich and powerful) that Acho grew up with in Dallas and how Jews internalize these antisemitic judgments. Moreover, Tishby notes, “it is literally impossible to be Jewish and not have any connection with Israel, and I’m not talking about borders or a dot on the map. Judaism…is an indigenous religion.” Acho wonders if one can legitimately criticize “Jewish people and their ideologies” without being antisemitic, and Tishby offers ways to check whether one’s criticism of Jews or Zionism is antisemitic or factually straightforward. The authors also touch on the deteriorating relationship between Black and Jewish Americans, despite their historically close alliance during the civil rights era. “As long as Jewish people get to benefit from appearing white while Black people have to suffer for being Black, there will always be resentment,” notes Acho. “Because the same thing that grants you all access—your skin color—is what grants us pain and punishment in perpetuity.” Finally, the authors underscore the importance of being mutual allies, and they conclude with helpful indexes on vernacular terms and customs.
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781668057858
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon Element
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
More by Emmanuel Acho
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.