Why am I passionate about this?
Saying just the right words in just the right way can cause a box of electronics to behave however you want it to behaveā¦ thatās an idea that has captivated me ever since I first played around with a computer at Radio Shack back in 1979. Iām always on the lookout for compelling ways to convey the topic to people who are open-minded, but maybe turned off by things that are overly technical. I teach computer science and study artificial intelligence as a way of expanding what we can get computers to do on our behalf.
Michael's book list on computing and why itās important and interesting
Why did Michael love this book?
So much of the public conversation around AI focuses on the extremes: "It's Going to Take Our Jobs And We'll Never Be Able To Work Ever Again!" or "It's Going To Create a Utopia And We'll Never Have To Work Ever Again!"
To be honest, I don't put a lot of credence into either of these perspectives. What I adore about this book is that it puts the technology in perspective in a concrete and laugh-out-loud funny way. Through detailed examples, it provides a glimpse into how the technology works, how it can be applied to real problems, and where it falls jaw-droppingly short.
1 author picked You Look Like a Thing and I Love You as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
āA deft, informative, and often screamingly funny primer on the ways that machine learning can (and often does) go wrong.ā āMargaret Harris, Physics World
āYou look like a thing and I love youā is one of the best pickup lines everā¦according to an artificial intelligence trained by the scientist Janelle Shane, creator of the popular blog AI Weirdness. Shane creates silly AIs that learn how to name colors of paint, create the best recipes, and even flirt (badly) with humansāall to understand the technology that governs so much of our human lives.
We rely on AI every day, trusting itā¦