A defense of AI weakened by poor arguments and little critical analysis.
Going against the “Gloomers” and “Doomers.”
Reid, the co-founder of LinkedIn, and Beato, a tech and culture writer, aim to dispel the public’s concerns about ceding control to AI systems and to establish trust in AI companies and their methods by showing “what could possibly go right” in AI development. Attempting to persuade readers that industry regulation is undemocratic and inhibits progress, the authors promulgate industry-friendly ideas such as permissionless innovation, iterative development, and risk tolerance. They take issue with AI “Gloomers,” who favor official oversight. They examine the historical context of technological adoption, using examples like the automobile, the power loom, and the printing press to illustrate how new technologies can transform societies. However, the authors don’t entirely prove their case. They frequently make comparisons that are an oversimplification of a complex issue, such as when they write: “Regulation is one way we try to compel certainty, but no regulation can completely eliminate the risk of some unfortunate thing happening.” The authors compare the regulation of Large Language Models (LLMs) used in AI to laws against robbery and professional licensing for doctors and lawyers: “Laws that make robbery a crime aren’t a guarantee that you won’t ever get mugged—they’re simply a policy designed to reduce that possibility.” But these are vastly different domains with distinct risks and regulatory challenges. The authors’ writing suffers from logical fallacies—hyperbole, hasty generalizations, and false dichotomies. At times, the book reads as if it were written by AI—meaning the arguments sound plausible, but may suffer from a biased feedback loop that could have occurred during one of their “endless conversations…with Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini,” which Beato cites using “while drafting this book.” These problems render the book largely sophomoric.
A defense of AI weakened by poor arguments and little critical analysis.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9798893310108
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Authors Equity
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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