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Smart Until It's Dumb: Why artificial intelligence keeps making epic mistakes—and why the AI bubble will burst
Artificial intelligence is everywhere—powering news feeds, curating search results and invisibly steering our lives. We talk to it and, increasingly, it talks back. And sometimes its answers seem eerily smart.
… Until they don't.
Billions of dollars have been poured into AI yet it keeps surprising us with its epic fails—confidently wrong chatbots, inadvertently racist photo apps, well-meaning autonomous cars that fail to recognize traffic cones.
Industry insider Emmanuel Maggiori cuts through the hype, revealing the deceptively simple mechanisms behind AI’s impressive results—and its spectacular blunders. Learn the dark secret of the AI industry—how unreasonable expectations, shady practices and outright lying have inflated a bubble of monumental proportions.
Read Smart Until It’s Dumb to discover how AI really works, why it’s not always so smart, and why the AI bubble is about to burst.
… Until they don't.
Billions of dollars have been poured into AI yet it keeps surprising us with its epic fails—confidently wrong chatbots, inadvertently racist photo apps, well-meaning autonomous cars that fail to recognize traffic cones.
Industry insider Emmanuel Maggiori cuts through the hype, revealing the deceptively simple mechanisms behind AI’s impressive results—and its spectacular blunders. Learn the dark secret of the AI industry—how unreasonable expectations, shady practices and outright lying have inflated a bubble of monumental proportions.
Read Smart Until It’s Dumb to discover how AI really works, why it’s not always so smart, and why the AI bubble is about to burst.
130 pages, ebook
Published February 20, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
March 7, 2023
The title makes it very clear the case the author Emmanuel will argue in the book. Each period, typically a decade or so brings about some technology trend which see excessive hype. In the past, that has been the case for Connectivity, Office Apps, Multimedia, Automation and now it is the turn of Artificial Intelligence. The book has a very good introduction to AI and the associated problems which are not allowing it to reach its claimed potential.
The start of the book has an introduction to current AI methods – especially machine learning. In contrast to rule-based applications, today applications learn from data sets and form patterns & associations. While there is no technical lingo, the explanations of how machine learning learns from images does require some technology awareness – though not too much. Today, the hype is so high that everybody feels pressured to say they are working on AI and also deriving spectacular results. Most funding, be in government or private is going to AI initiatives. Often the results employ clever wordplay to make the results seems impressive. One excellent example in the book is a news item which claimed AI can detect early onset of dementia 92% of the time. It turns out that in the sampling done typically only 10% shows early signs. So, declaring all as not being prone to dementia would be 90% accurate. Self-driving cars is discussed in a lot of detail in the book. Even minor alterations to road signs (quite possible due to either vandalism / weather / accidents) confuses self-driving cars. Other less frequent occurrences such as people stepping out of their cars in halted traffic etc are also problems. As a result, the timeline for operationalizing them has been shifting since many years. The author gives ChatGPT a go, and provides a list of questions which stumps it. There are also examples of mis-labelled images and why it happens. The conclusion is that machine learning as it stands today is inadequate for the next level.
There is an interesting discussion on consciousness in the later sections. A Google scientist had claimed he had seen signs of consciousness in machines and was later dismissed. While we do not have a conclusive answer, the process of debate in the book is fascinating. If you were to replace a few neurons in a human with artificial neurons, would the consciousness shift? And what if there was a total replacement?
The content of the book is excellent – it explains the current status of AI and the problems it must overcome. However, in all fairness, we need to discuss the success of AI as well. And those examples are many – tailored shopping recommendations, personalized learning, traveller experience and others. None of this is discussed and the examples are focussed only on failures. In that sense, this data cherry picking is what the author warns against. Nevertheless, that AI is not anywhere near Artificial General Intelligence, putting it at par with humans is true and well reinforced in the book. The book does well to warn that we must be wary of giving into hype around AI.
My rating: 4.25 / 5.
Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher Cameron Publicity & Marketing Ltd and the author for a free electronic review copy.
The start of the book has an introduction to current AI methods – especially machine learning. In contrast to rule-based applications, today applications learn from data sets and form patterns & associations. While there is no technical lingo, the explanations of how machine learning learns from images does require some technology awareness – though not too much. Today, the hype is so high that everybody feels pressured to say they are working on AI and also deriving spectacular results. Most funding, be in government or private is going to AI initiatives. Often the results employ clever wordplay to make the results seems impressive. One excellent example in the book is a news item which claimed AI can detect early onset of dementia 92% of the time. It turns out that in the sampling done typically only 10% shows early signs. So, declaring all as not being prone to dementia would be 90% accurate. Self-driving cars is discussed in a lot of detail in the book. Even minor alterations to road signs (quite possible due to either vandalism / weather / accidents) confuses self-driving cars. Other less frequent occurrences such as people stepping out of their cars in halted traffic etc are also problems. As a result, the timeline for operationalizing them has been shifting since many years. The author gives ChatGPT a go, and provides a list of questions which stumps it. There are also examples of mis-labelled images and why it happens. The conclusion is that machine learning as it stands today is inadequate for the next level.
There is an interesting discussion on consciousness in the later sections. A Google scientist had claimed he had seen signs of consciousness in machines and was later dismissed. While we do not have a conclusive answer, the process of debate in the book is fascinating. If you were to replace a few neurons in a human with artificial neurons, would the consciousness shift? And what if there was a total replacement?
The content of the book is excellent – it explains the current status of AI and the problems it must overcome. However, in all fairness, we need to discuss the success of AI as well. And those examples are many – tailored shopping recommendations, personalized learning, traveller experience and others. None of this is discussed and the examples are focussed only on failures. In that sense, this data cherry picking is what the author warns against. Nevertheless, that AI is not anywhere near Artificial General Intelligence, putting it at par with humans is true and well reinforced in the book. The book does well to warn that we must be wary of giving into hype around AI.
My rating: 4.25 / 5.
Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher Cameron Publicity & Marketing Ltd and the author for a free electronic review copy.
February 1, 2024
3.5 stars - Interesting to see some grounding to the hype on AI while acknowledging it's potential power
February 19, 2023
‘Is current AI truly smart or just a good pretender?’
This book addresses many factors of AI: applications, benefits, dangers, history, misconceptions, reliability, theories, various types of learning, etc. It compares/contrasts humans and machines. Included with the text are drawings, FAQs, quotations, and tables. Resources, References, and an Index are at the end.
Fave quotes:
‘ Elon Musk suggested that if a computer learns how to filter spam, it could conclude that “the best way of getting rid of spam email is getting rid of humans.” ’
‘We’re often told that AI will endanger our livelihoods or even our lives, or that we must control AI and align it to human values or else our civilization could crumble.’
The author tells us the tale of when he was a “corporate AI spy”!
This book addresses many factors of AI: applications, benefits, dangers, history, misconceptions, reliability, theories, various types of learning, etc. It compares/contrasts humans and machines. Included with the text are drawings, FAQs, quotations, and tables. Resources, References, and an Index are at the end.
Fave quotes:
‘ Elon Musk suggested that if a computer learns how to filter spam, it could conclude that “the best way of getting rid of spam email is getting rid of humans.” ’
‘We’re often told that AI will endanger our livelihoods or even our lives, or that we must control AI and align it to human values or else our civilization could crumble.’
The author tells us the tale of when he was a “corporate AI spy”!
May 11, 2024
A refreshing look at the current hype topic of the information technology world.
First part gives a good high level view of how current Machine Learning solutions work, their strengths and their flaws.
Middle part talks about inflated expectations in business & research.
Last part is more philosophical and talks about theories on what consciousness is and from that whether AGI can be achieved based on the current state of art.
(Spoiler: More likely not)
First part gives a good high level view of how current Machine Learning solutions work, their strengths and their flaws.
Middle part talks about inflated expectations in business & research.
Last part is more philosophical and talks about theories on what consciousness is and from that whether AGI can be achieved based on the current state of art.
(Spoiler: More likely not)
April 29, 2023
This book gives a different take on the benefits and harms of general AI compared to the numerous podcasts and books I've read thus far. If you want to learn about the power and limitations of AI, please read this book. I highly recommend for a person well versed in AI already.
May 9, 2023
ARC Review: His is a bold undertaking, purporting to debunk the "hype" surrounding AI. This is a fraught task, because every day artificial intelligence seems to accelerate its capabilities. Nevertheless, Maggiori's perspective is a necessary counterweight to the overblown claims of impending AI-pocalypse and alleged sentience.
I was at first annoyed at his dismissal of many major contentions as 'hype' but reading deeper into the book it became apparent that there really is a lot of nonsense and outright misrepresentation in the rush to attract venture capital.
A strong point is his incursion into the nature of consciousness. I initially had trouble wrapping my brain around the notion "what is it like to be a bat" but his exposition makes this rather abstruse concept accessible. "Qualia" is simply the experience of experience -- irreducible to neurons firing or zeros and ones. Science cannot really explain the emergence of consciousness and thus the author takes us into the realm of philosophy.
The point is "what is it like to be an artificial intellegence" and opinion is split over whether it is even possible for self-consciousness to emerge on a silicone substrate. Nevertheless, it would seem that what is possible with organic matter - carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen - should be theoretically possible on digital circuits.
Maggioli weighs in on the sceptical side, but his perspective is essential. Ray Kurzeweil is a good representative of the opposite side of the spectrum and Maggioli takes on the formidable task of assuring readers that all the to-do about artificial intelligence is overdone.
Personally, I remain unconvinced, but understanding this author's perspective is essential for anyone who is seriously pondering the nature of artificial intelligence and the question of whether AI can attain to consciousness. Well worth a read. (his is a bold undertaking, purporting to debunk the "hype" surrounding AI. This is a fraught task, because every day artificial intelligence seems to accelerate its capabilities. Nevertheless, Maggiori's perspective is a necessary counterweight to the overblown claims of impending AI-pocalypse and alleged sentience.
I was at first annoyed at his dismissal of many major contentions as 'hype' but reading deeper into the book it became apparent that there really is a lot of nonsense and outright misrepresentation in the rush to attract venture capital.
A strong point is his incursion into the nature of consciousness. I initially had trouble wrapping my brain around the notion "what is it like to be a bat" but his exposition makes this rather abstruse concept accessible. "Qualia" is simply the experience of experience -- irreducible to neurons firing or zeros and ones. Science cannot really explain the emergence of consciousness and thus the author takes us into the realm of philosophy.
The point is "what is it like to be an artificial intellegence" and opinion is split over whether it is even possible for self-consciousness to emerge on a silicone substrate. Nevertheless, it would seem that what is possible with organic matter - carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen - should be theoretically possible on digital circuits.
Maggioli weighs in on the sceptical side, but his perspective is essential. Ray Kurzeweil is a good representative of the opposite side of the spectrum and Maggioli takes on the formidable task of assuring readers that all the to-do about artificial intelligence is overdone.
Personally, I remain unconvinced, but understanding this author's perspective is essential for anyone who is seriously pondering the nature of artificial intelligence and the question of whether AI can attain to consciousness. Well worth a read. (ARC Review.)
I was at first annoyed at his dismissal of many major contentions as 'hype' but reading deeper into the book it became apparent that there really is a lot of nonsense and outright misrepresentation in the rush to attract venture capital.
A strong point is his incursion into the nature of consciousness. I initially had trouble wrapping my brain around the notion "what is it like to be a bat" but his exposition makes this rather abstruse concept accessible. "Qualia" is simply the experience of experience -- irreducible to neurons firing or zeros and ones. Science cannot really explain the emergence of consciousness and thus the author takes us into the realm of philosophy.
The point is "what is it like to be an artificial intellegence" and opinion is split over whether it is even possible for self-consciousness to emerge on a silicone substrate. Nevertheless, it would seem that what is possible with organic matter - carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen - should be theoretically possible on digital circuits.
Maggioli weighs in on the sceptical side, but his perspective is essential. Ray Kurzeweil is a good representative of the opposite side of the spectrum and Maggioli takes on the formidable task of assuring readers that all the to-do about artificial intelligence is overdone.
Personally, I remain unconvinced, but understanding this author's perspective is essential for anyone who is seriously pondering the nature of artificial intelligence and the question of whether AI can attain to consciousness. Well worth a read. (his is a bold undertaking, purporting to debunk the "hype" surrounding AI. This is a fraught task, because every day artificial intelligence seems to accelerate its capabilities. Nevertheless, Maggiori's perspective is a necessary counterweight to the overblown claims of impending AI-pocalypse and alleged sentience.
I was at first annoyed at his dismissal of many major contentions as 'hype' but reading deeper into the book it became apparent that there really is a lot of nonsense and outright misrepresentation in the rush to attract venture capital.
A strong point is his incursion into the nature of consciousness. I initially had trouble wrapping my brain around the notion "what is it like to be a bat" but his exposition makes this rather abstruse concept accessible. "Qualia" is simply the experience of experience -- irreducible to neurons firing or zeros and ones. Science cannot really explain the emergence of consciousness and thus the author takes us into the realm of philosophy.
The point is "what is it like to be an artificial intellegence" and opinion is split over whether it is even possible for self-consciousness to emerge on a silicone substrate. Nevertheless, it would seem that what is possible with organic matter - carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen - should be theoretically possible on digital circuits.
Maggioli weighs in on the sceptical side, but his perspective is essential. Ray Kurzeweil is a good representative of the opposite side of the spectrum and Maggioli takes on the formidable task of assuring readers that all the to-do about artificial intelligence is overdone.
Personally, I remain unconvinced, but understanding this author's perspective is essential for anyone who is seriously pondering the nature of artificial intelligence and the question of whether AI can attain to consciousness. Well worth a read. (ARC Review.)
April 25, 2023
Have you ever wondered how you can write software that can learn? We don’t insert something new or extra for animals to learn. Sure we might teach things we want learned, that is actually behavior more than learning, but it is a muddled mess of learning that creates behavior and visa versa. It might seem far fetched and arrogant to try this when we do not even know how the brain works. I am not just talking about the human brain, one of the most complex brains in the animal kingdom, but any brain of any living animal. Oh we know a little bit, just enough to get us into trouble.
And that is about where we are with A.I. We know just enough to make things really really bad. In his book, Smart Until It’s Dumb: Why artificial intelligence keeps making epic mistakes (and why the AI bubble will burst), Emmanuel Maggiori explains in plain English what is wrong with current A.I. practices and research and how that will impact A.I. development moving forward.
In addition to not knowing enough about what we are doing with A.I. we are seeing that those involved with A.I. development are impacting the function. They are skewing the information that A.I. models are using to "learn" and even using wrong or bad data to limit the information that A.I. accesses so that its 'thoughts' will lean a certain way and thus those that in the future become dependent on A.I. for information, just as most people completely depend on Google searches to tell them EVERYTHING they want to know without truly knowing where that information comes from will also lean in that same direction.
Maggiori has gained varied experiences during his career that has given him valuable insight in to how the quest for A.I. is going and what its future might look like. This is an especially interesting read given the current discussions surrounding A.I.’s present and future in the wider world. While his experience leads him to certain thoughts about the future of A.I. I am not sure that I agree with him, I believe that enough of a perceived potential for certain uses for A.I. but governments and businesses has been projected to keep A.I. moving forward whether in the spotlight or in the shadows.
*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
My full review can be read here
And that is about where we are with A.I. We know just enough to make things really really bad. In his book, Smart Until It’s Dumb: Why artificial intelligence keeps making epic mistakes (and why the AI bubble will burst), Emmanuel Maggiori explains in plain English what is wrong with current A.I. practices and research and how that will impact A.I. development moving forward.
In addition to not knowing enough about what we are doing with A.I. we are seeing that those involved with A.I. development are impacting the function. They are skewing the information that A.I. models are using to "learn" and even using wrong or bad data to limit the information that A.I. accesses so that its 'thoughts' will lean a certain way and thus those that in the future become dependent on A.I. for information, just as most people completely depend on Google searches to tell them EVERYTHING they want to know without truly knowing where that information comes from will also lean in that same direction.
Maggiori has gained varied experiences during his career that has given him valuable insight in to how the quest for A.I. is going and what its future might look like. This is an especially interesting read given the current discussions surrounding A.I.’s present and future in the wider world. While his experience leads him to certain thoughts about the future of A.I. I am not sure that I agree with him, I believe that enough of a perceived potential for certain uses for A.I. but governments and businesses has been projected to keep A.I. moving forward whether in the spotlight or in the shadows.
*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
My full review can be read here
February 25, 2023
Book Review
Title: Smart Until It’s Dumb by Emmanuel Maggiori
Genre: Non-Fiction, Science, Technology
Rating: 4.5 Stars
The introduction sets out what Maggiori intends to do with the book, which is two main things, how current AI works, what it can and can’t do and a real look inside the businesses and industries that are using and developing AI technology. The first chapter looks into the machine learning era, Maggiori first breaks down the various AI booms that have happened first in the 60s and then in the 80s before bringing us to the most recent boom in the 2010s. the first two AI booms led to so-called AI Winters because of the lack of resources and the technology available to the time but that changed in the early 2010s since technology had advanced alongside our understanding of technology. Maggiori then breaks down what machine learning is with its pros and cons and its limitations. It was interesting to learn that despite being able to carry out actions by itself AI needs to be assisted with its datasets otherwise it will be unable to perform its primary task which means for things like self-driving cars they might actually be damn near impossible since the technology would always need to be supervised unless these barriers can be overcome.
In chapter 2, Maggiori begins looking into deep learning and its dangers. Deep learning takes aspects of machine learning and develops on them and we use it for many things including image and video analysis and natural language processing. Maggiori goes into depth about what deep learning is and how it differs and builds on machine learning which is a little complex to follow even in layman’s terms if you aren’t familiar with technology and the way it works but once you get the hang of it things make sense. This is the foundation of the book as it understand the potential and potential dangers and limitations of AI you need to understand how it works and functions of a fundamental level.
In chapter 3, Maggiori begins to look at how smart AI actually is. AI is both incredibly smart and stupid at the same time and when you break it down the distinction between smart and stupid is a lot clearer in terms of AI. For things like number plate recognition AI only needs instruction on the identification of letter and number where as for language translation there are more areas for mistakes. Maggiori uses two brilliant examples here, first take words that have more than one meaning like pen which can mean writing pen or holding pen. When trying to translate the words individually the AI isn’t able to distinguish between the two pens without context. Even without context if the reference words are separated then the AI still fails to provide the correct translation of the words. The second is in image recognition, when an AI was presented the two pictures, one of a cow in a field and one of a cow on the beath and asked to categories items in the images it had surprising results. For the cow in the field “cow” was the first tag the AI gave the image but the AI was unable to tag “cow” with the beach image. This is because AI relies on looking for patterns to assign tags to the images and cows are commonly associated with grass so in the pictures where there was a cow but no grass the AI was unable to form the connection between the animal and the environment.
In chapter 4, Maggiori begins looking at some of the current practical applications of AI starting with AI in business. In this section Maggiori uses a lot of his own personal experiences with AI in business which was both hilarious and terrifying. Hilarious because the sheer stupidity of some of the people attempting to develop and work with Ai was immense and his comments on why these problems happen made it even better. However, it was terrifying because these levels of stupidity very much exist in business today and nothing is really being done about them which makes working in the industry or coming into the industry a daunting task for most unless you have the knowledge and experience to overcome these hurdles. One disturbing thing that Maggiori discusses is the censorship of their work in various different companies because the results aren’t what the executives wanted and the blatant lies he has been told over the years when being sought out or applying for positions and this shouldn’t be allowed to continue yet it does.
In chapter 5, Maggiori looks at the uses of AI in research. Maggiori draws on his own experience during his PhD and explains that tricks are often used to exaggerate and manipulate results which has become increasingly common and these tricks are taught to others behind the scenes creating a much larger problem. During his PhD, Maggiori personally witnessed how cherry-picking the result data to publish can have a much wider, negative impact than many people expect and what that means for the wider scientific community and I completely agree that it needs to stop but that can’t be done unless the problem of the pressure put on researchers to produce wanted results in exchange for funding is also dealt with and this creates a never ending circle without a solution at the moment but it is beginning to change as people are beginning to fight back and the lies and deceit in the scientific communities.
In chapter 6, Maggiori turns to the philosophical questions about whether we should be looking to AI to do jobs that can easily be done by humans currently with much higher accuracy and dependency. Maggiori delves into the question of consciousness and what makes a sentient being and whether or not AI can actually be developed to the point it could become conscious and what that would mean. The conclusion of the books makes me think that AI technology is far less advanced than people lead us to believe and compared to a human some AI have less functionality and problem solving skills than a toddler but others that require less complicated data input are more advanced and take over many minor tasks like number plate recognition as was mentioned earlier. This was definitely worth the read and if Maggiori write a more in-depth version of this book I will definitely pick it up.
Title: Smart Until It’s Dumb by Emmanuel Maggiori
Genre: Non-Fiction, Science, Technology
Rating: 4.5 Stars
The introduction sets out what Maggiori intends to do with the book, which is two main things, how current AI works, what it can and can’t do and a real look inside the businesses and industries that are using and developing AI technology. The first chapter looks into the machine learning era, Maggiori first breaks down the various AI booms that have happened first in the 60s and then in the 80s before bringing us to the most recent boom in the 2010s. the first two AI booms led to so-called AI Winters because of the lack of resources and the technology available to the time but that changed in the early 2010s since technology had advanced alongside our understanding of technology. Maggiori then breaks down what machine learning is with its pros and cons and its limitations. It was interesting to learn that despite being able to carry out actions by itself AI needs to be assisted with its datasets otherwise it will be unable to perform its primary task which means for things like self-driving cars they might actually be damn near impossible since the technology would always need to be supervised unless these barriers can be overcome.
In chapter 2, Maggiori begins looking into deep learning and its dangers. Deep learning takes aspects of machine learning and develops on them and we use it for many things including image and video analysis and natural language processing. Maggiori goes into depth about what deep learning is and how it differs and builds on machine learning which is a little complex to follow even in layman’s terms if you aren’t familiar with technology and the way it works but once you get the hang of it things make sense. This is the foundation of the book as it understand the potential and potential dangers and limitations of AI you need to understand how it works and functions of a fundamental level.
In chapter 3, Maggiori begins to look at how smart AI actually is. AI is both incredibly smart and stupid at the same time and when you break it down the distinction between smart and stupid is a lot clearer in terms of AI. For things like number plate recognition AI only needs instruction on the identification of letter and number where as for language translation there are more areas for mistakes. Maggiori uses two brilliant examples here, first take words that have more than one meaning like pen which can mean writing pen or holding pen. When trying to translate the words individually the AI isn’t able to distinguish between the two pens without context. Even without context if the reference words are separated then the AI still fails to provide the correct translation of the words. The second is in image recognition, when an AI was presented the two pictures, one of a cow in a field and one of a cow on the beath and asked to categories items in the images it had surprising results. For the cow in the field “cow” was the first tag the AI gave the image but the AI was unable to tag “cow” with the beach image. This is because AI relies on looking for patterns to assign tags to the images and cows are commonly associated with grass so in the pictures where there was a cow but no grass the AI was unable to form the connection between the animal and the environment.
In chapter 4, Maggiori begins looking at some of the current practical applications of AI starting with AI in business. In this section Maggiori uses a lot of his own personal experiences with AI in business which was both hilarious and terrifying. Hilarious because the sheer stupidity of some of the people attempting to develop and work with Ai was immense and his comments on why these problems happen made it even better. However, it was terrifying because these levels of stupidity very much exist in business today and nothing is really being done about them which makes working in the industry or coming into the industry a daunting task for most unless you have the knowledge and experience to overcome these hurdles. One disturbing thing that Maggiori discusses is the censorship of their work in various different companies because the results aren’t what the executives wanted and the blatant lies he has been told over the years when being sought out or applying for positions and this shouldn’t be allowed to continue yet it does.
In chapter 5, Maggiori looks at the uses of AI in research. Maggiori draws on his own experience during his PhD and explains that tricks are often used to exaggerate and manipulate results which has become increasingly common and these tricks are taught to others behind the scenes creating a much larger problem. During his PhD, Maggiori personally witnessed how cherry-picking the result data to publish can have a much wider, negative impact than many people expect and what that means for the wider scientific community and I completely agree that it needs to stop but that can’t be done unless the problem of the pressure put on researchers to produce wanted results in exchange for funding is also dealt with and this creates a never ending circle without a solution at the moment but it is beginning to change as people are beginning to fight back and the lies and deceit in the scientific communities.
In chapter 6, Maggiori turns to the philosophical questions about whether we should be looking to AI to do jobs that can easily be done by humans currently with much higher accuracy and dependency. Maggiori delves into the question of consciousness and what makes a sentient being and whether or not AI can actually be developed to the point it could become conscious and what that would mean. The conclusion of the books makes me think that AI technology is far less advanced than people lead us to believe and compared to a human some AI have less functionality and problem solving skills than a toddler but others that require less complicated data input are more advanced and take over many minor tasks like number plate recognition as was mentioned earlier. This was definitely worth the read and if Maggiori write a more in-depth version of this book I will definitely pick it up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 20, 2023
My friend gifted me this book after we had a few discussions on AI. First of all, the author isn’t a particularly good writer. Compounding that with some questionable logic and a weird structure to the conclusion, I found the book to be a dud. The author is a “data scientist” with few credentials. It’s unclear how well they even understand the basics of machine learning and artificial intelligence. I was a bit disgusted by the comparisons of AI to cold fusion and string theory. How is that fair? The author dismisses the computational theory of mind in a couple of paragraphs but offers no alternative. I get the value of AI pessimists to pump the brakes on some of the egregiously optimistic claims of AI’s abilities. Unfortunately, this book really gets stuck on AI having an error rate above zero. Humans aren’t even capable of zero error rate. Overall, I’m not sure the author has credibility or in depth knowledge of state of the art AI. The author uses loaded, troubling metaphors and isn’t a particularly good author. But other than that, it’s ok.
March 23, 2023
I enjoyed this book. Aside from being highly informative, the writing style is conversational and engaging. The content is not technical and no background is really necessary. The book felt more like a discussion over coffee than it did a book. I’ve read a couple of other books on AI and the information is consistent between them, but the excellent “System Error” by Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami, and Jeremy M. Weinstein weaved their story through the context of social media. “Smart until it’s dumb” is more focused. This book also discussed a bit about consciousness and physics (e.g., is the brain a computer type of stuff) and some of the points about physics are excellent. And if I had any fears about AI, this book managed to assuage them. I strongly recommend this book for people interested in or are fearful of AI. Thank you to Netgalley and Cameron Publicity & Marketing Ltd for the digital review copy.
May 5, 2023
"Smart Until It's Dumb" is a must-read for anyone interested in artificial intelligence. The author does an excellent job of explaining complex AI concepts in simple terms that the general public can understand. The book shines a light on the over-hyped promises of AI and explains how the technology is prone to making epic mistakes, which could have disastrous consequences.
The author doesn't shy away from pointing out the limitations of AI and why it's not the magic solution to all our problems. The book is well-researched and provides real-life examples of AI failures that have already occurred. It's an eye-opening read that will help readers develop a more realistic understanding of AI.
Overall, "Smart Until It's Dumb" is a highly informative and engaging book offering a refreshing AI perspective. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the potential and limitations of this technology.
The author doesn't shy away from pointing out the limitations of AI and why it's not the magic solution to all our problems. The book is well-researched and provides real-life examples of AI failures that have already occurred. It's an eye-opening read that will help readers develop a more realistic understanding of AI.
Overall, "Smart Until It's Dumb" is a highly informative and engaging book offering a refreshing AI perspective. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the potential and limitations of this technology.
March 13, 2023
A very clear explanation of the current methodologies employed by AI (mk 3). Much of the authors experience working as a consultant in AI reminded me of my time in the 90s working as a consultant in CRM (and look at the mess we now live with as a result of that strategy).
In fact I well remember a colleague telling me how they had helped introduce a loyalty card for a well known retailer and now they had more data than they knew what to do with. "Data warehousing" it was called then. This was screaming out for analysis tools, and I guess AI fits the bill.
Taking people out of customer facing roles is a recipe for disaster. Closing branches, introducing self service, off shoring call centres and AI chat bots (that definitely do not pass a Turing test) is a great way to anoy customers.
AI may be Artificial but intelligent it ain't!
A great read.
In fact I well remember a colleague telling me how they had helped introduce a loyalty card for a well known retailer and now they had more data than they knew what to do with. "Data warehousing" it was called then. This was screaming out for analysis tools, and I guess AI fits the bill.
Taking people out of customer facing roles is a recipe for disaster. Closing branches, introducing self service, off shoring call centres and AI chat bots (that definitely do not pass a Turing test) is a great way to anoy customers.
AI may be Artificial but intelligent it ain't!
A great read.
March 27, 2023
A nice piece of explanation of AI's capabilities and shortfalls that should help pump the brakes on everyone being so hyperbolic about AI in the wake of ChatGPT coming out. I view it as a companion piece to Janelle Shane's excellent You Look Like a Thing and I Love You; it's not as fun as that book, and less detailed, but it does add a bit to the discussion by virtue of being published some years later (and catching a little more AI evolution) and having a different perspective than Shane's, as Maggiori shares several anecdotes from his time working on AI projects at various companies with greater-or-lesser degrees of understanding of how to use AI.
Thanks to NetGalley and Cameron Publicity & Marketing Ltd for the ARC.
Thanks to NetGalley and Cameron Publicity & Marketing Ltd for the ARC.
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May 13, 2024There must be an explanation for this frenzy, a reason why everyone tries to push AI everywhere. I think one of the main reasons is that saying you’re working on AI is a great way of raising funding from private investors and the government with a low level of accountability."
"The idea behind machine learning is that, instead of manually writing every detail of the computer program, the practitioner decides its general shape (the template) and lets the computer automatically fill in the blanks in a useful way."
"Machine learning is not carried out by giving all the data we have to the machine and letting it learn anything it wants. As we’ve seen, giving the computer that much freedom would be highly ineffective for building useful software. As we’ll discuss later on, this holds true even with the most advanced AI built to date."
"To reach AGI, computers would have to match human performance in the most challenging tasks, including language comprehension. As we’ve seen throughout this chapter, machine learning, which is currently the highest-performing type of AI, does not accomplish that. So, the missing piece to reach AGI is not just some practical limitation, say, that computers aren’t fast enough or that we don’t have enough data. Faster computers or more data might be necessary, but they wouldn’t be enough. In order to reach AGI, someone would need to discover a new, unprecedented methodology, since machine learning as it is today falls short. So, what AGI requires is innovation."
"No one knows how to overcome these issues. So, we would need innovation— the discovery of a new methodology—to make the next jump forward. But we cannot predict when innovation will happen. And the fact that innovation has happened recently doesn’t necessarily mean that the next
breakthrough is coming soon."
Son tiempos en los que la información disponible nos rebasa, el rigor periodístico parece desvanecerse y el periodismo mismo pierde su relevancia cultural frente a los memes. Así que la conversación colectiva va brincando de moda en moda impulsada por verdades a medias o mentiras completas.
Gartner tiene una famosa gráfica que explica este fenómeno: una nueva tendencia o tecnología surge, las expectativas alrededor de ésta crecen sin control hasta alcanzar un pico en donde se escuchan predicciones exageradas y las chaquetas mentales al respecto se apoderan de LinkedIn y de las reuniones familiares, para después descender dramáticamente y alcanzar un abismo en el que la mayoría de la gente se olvida por completo de la nueva tendencia, seguido de un crecimiento mucho más silencioso que conduce a un periodo en donde la nueva tecnología finalmente entrega resultados tangibles, realistas y sin mucho ruido. Pasó con la tecnología blockchain, con el metaverso, con las impresoras 3-D y con el internet mismo (que sí, hoy es parte integral de nuestras vidas, pero en algún momento fue una burbuja que reventó) - hoy es el turno de la inteligencia artificial. De repente han surgido toda clase de personajes diciendo que si ChatGPT puede escribir cualquier cosa con la voz narrativa de Gabriel García Márquez (cosa que solo diría alguien que o no ha usado el producto o nunca ha leído a GGM), que si en cuestión de meses todos los trabajos van a desaparecer o que si en cinco años se va a alcanzar la inteligencia artificial general y las máquinas se van a revelar en contra de la humanidad.
El autor de este libro tiene años de experiencia en el desarrollo de inteligencia artificial y logra explicar de la forma más sencilla posible la historia de la misma (no, no surgió mágicamente hace un año), sus conceptos esenciales, alabar los impresionantes progresos que se han logrado en el campo, detallar los alcances reales que tiene, revisar algunos de los peligros que existen hoy y aquellos que se avecinan, así como los obstáculos a los que se enfrentan los investigadores y que muchas de las promesas desmedidas que se leen en redes sociales no toman en cuenta. Nadie posee verdades absolutas de nada, pero creo yo que el tipo tiene un perfil bastante más apto para discutir estos temas que, digamos, tiktokers cuya experiencia está centrada más bien en generar vistas.
August 2, 2023
Are you worried about the AI apocalypse around the corner?
Fear not.
An AI expert splashes cold water on the idea in this sober book.
He explains, "There is no clear pathway yet toward AGI."
He says it's like nuclear fusion: it's always 10 years away.
Also, the question of whether & how consciousness emerges from computer programs remains unsolved."
It's an excellent book to bring the AI hype back down to earth.
Fear not.
An AI expert splashes cold water on the idea in this sober book.
He explains, "There is no clear pathway yet toward AGI."
He says it's like nuclear fusion: it's always 10 years away.
Also, the question of whether & how consciousness emerges from computer programs remains unsolved."
It's an excellent book to bring the AI hype back down to earth.
June 28, 2023
Superb
I have a lot of books on AI from the highly technical to the more mundane Popular Science and even Esoteric, Sci-fi varieties.
This particular book is easy to read and enjoyable. It explains things simply but accurately, it raises important questions and exposes a lot of the hype.
I would recommend it to anyone, Zero or Hero.
Enjoy!
I have a lot of books on AI from the highly technical to the more mundane Popular Science and even Esoteric, Sci-fi varieties.
This particular book is easy to read and enjoyable. It explains things simply but accurately, it raises important questions and exposes a lot of the hype.
I would recommend it to anyone, Zero or Hero.
Enjoy!
July 9, 2023
A very interesting “insider” book with a lot of examples of current AI hype -basically, putting AI first before even understanding the task in hand.
I didn’t like that much the last “philosophical” chapter as it’s relying too much on Penrose idea of quantum effects in the brain and also a bit mixes “consciousness” and “AGI”. It’s not necessary for AGI to be conscious, just to be performant.
I didn’t like that much the last “philosophical” chapter as it’s relying too much on Penrose idea of quantum effects in the brain and also a bit mixes “consciousness” and “AGI”. It’s not necessary for AGI to be conscious, just to be performant.
February 28, 2023
Thoughtful review by an expert practitioner
Clear and well argued. Enough detail to enable laypeople to see the weaknesses in machine learning. Punctures the hype. A good chapter on sentience claims. Recommended.
Clear and well argued. Enough detail to enable laypeople to see the weaknesses in machine learning. Punctures the hype. A good chapter on sentience claims. Recommended.
March 18, 2023
Excellent!
Lucid analysis of the state of affairs of this domain. The very act of wishful thinking of many AI researchers stands as proof against the validity of computational model of the mind (where, allegedly, outcome are decided on logical analysis, alone).
Lucid analysis of the state of affairs of this domain. The very act of wishful thinking of many AI researchers stands as proof against the validity of computational model of the mind (where, allegedly, outcome are decided on logical analysis, alone).
March 21, 2023
Sobering look at the hype!!!
This author thinks like I do about this situation - although people like Eliezer Yudkowsky who think as bad as AI is - it's dangerous - still have be concerned instead of blasé.
This author thinks like I do about this situation - although people like Eliezer Yudkowsky who think as bad as AI is - it's dangerous - still have be concerned instead of blasé.
August 1, 2023
Yes chatgpt is useful and can be used in powerful ways but also we should recognize that you should take it with grain of salt. Smart until it's dumb is a great a non-hyped guide of how AI works in technical manner, its philosophical implications and and why its flawed and still far from perfect.
February 4, 2024
Lovely little book. Call a spade a spade. Understand the human element behind all AI that is built and hyped. Understand that all AI systems are ultimately a direct reflection of the choices of the humans who built them. Understand that it's all A and not so much I.
June 26, 2023
A level-headed look at AI. A much needed counterpoint to the media hype (and doom and gloom) surrounding artificial intelligence.
September 5, 2023
Pragmatic view on the current AI hype.
August 11, 2024
The author takes a good look at AI, highlighting its benefits but also focusing on much of the hype and misinformation that usually surrounds it. Undoubtedly, it is a good book providing a balanced view of AI's capabilities.
May 31, 2024
Decent book, well-structured, properly provocative, the last chapter is kind of vague, but that's what makes it special compared to other tech books. I find most of the stories relatable to my own experience working in tech regarding lies and ego-boosts, even though I worked far from AI. Not a five-star book, because I think its content might be seen outdated in a few years, but I also don't find it that critical.
I've found this book after reading the author's blog, especially a brilliant post "I’ve been employed in tech for years, but I’ve almost never worked", and will never regret reading both. I have a strong feeling that this fella's got something to say and strongly encourage him writing more as, by doing it, he makes a great contribution to the tech community. At his own comfortable pace, of course, because burnout is a bitch.
I've found this book after reading the author's blog, especially a brilliant post "I’ve been employed in tech for years, but I’ve almost never worked", and will never regret reading both. I have a strong feeling that this fella's got something to say and strongly encourage him writing more as, by doing it, he makes a great contribution to the tech community. At his own comfortable pace, of course, because burnout is a bitch.
September 5, 2024
Really good simply introduction to AI, how it works, the benefits, pitfalls, and use of AI in today's world
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