Artificial Unintelligence

How Computers Misunderstand the World

By: Meredith Broussard

Narrated by: Andrea Emmes

In Artificial Unintelligence, Meredith Broussard argues that our collective enthusiasm for applying computer technology to every aspect of life has resulted in a tremendous amount of poorly designed systems. We are so eager to do everything digitally - hiring, driving, paying bills, even choosing romantic partners - that we have stopped demanding that our technology actually work. Broussard, a software developer and journalist, reminds us that there are fundamental limits to what we can (and should) do with technology.

Making a case against technochauvinism - the belief that technology is always the solution - Broussard argues that it's just not true that social problems would inevitably retreat before a digitally enabled Utopia. To prove her point, she undertakes a series of adventures in computer programming. She goes for an alarming ride in a driverless car; uses artificial intelligence to investigate why students can't pass standardized tests; deploys machine learning to predict which passengers survived the Titanic disaster; and attempts to repair the US campaign finance system by building AI software. If we understand the limits of what we can do with technology, Broussard tells us, we can make better choices about what we should do with it to make the world better for everyone.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 Meredith Broussard (P)2019 Tantor

... liked the narration

Interesting, insider's, personal p.o.v. .. outside of the 'boys club.' Very enjoyable and informative. Just the right combo of technical detail and overview/perspective.
Normally I don't rate the audio reading, but since others have downgraded the narrator I feel I should mention that I actually liked this person's voice. Very unique and a good choice to represent the material.

Comprehensive, easy to digest and practical book.

Well done! I came across this book from Coded Bias, and I must say that this book answered most if not all of the questions I had about AI and other future technologies. The language is contemporary, her logic and arguments about TechnoChauvanists are sound.
I look forward to reading some of the other books written by pioneering women who are in the STEM fields.

Fascinating, great real world examples

Amazingly even the code examples without the benefit of the PDF were fine. This title is really accessible and requires no real technical details understanding. To me it was quite basic and few surprises on the high level, but the detailed discussions on standardised testing and self driving cars were quite interesting, and surprising (less for the successes but more for the failed approaches).

Some excellent points on IT and innovation generally and overall a great listen.

AI versus Political Science

The writer of this piece is a journalist and a professor. Thus the strengths and flaws inherent in the book. On the one hand, she is both talented in expressing the concepts of AI and skilled in explaining these to the average reader in digestible chunks. On the other, this is a lecture in which the writer makes known her own bias (which she uses the narrative framework of DEI to project) and dismisses al opposing views as -ists or -isms, with the commonly repeated phase of Techno-chauvinism. To understand how politics has come to dominate the Tech world and the cultural of control this engenders for fear of being called out by the DEI elect is perhaps an unintended lesson from this book.

An important book reminding us the true age of technology and people

Meredith Broussard’s book, Artificial Intelligence, served best as a reminder of the true age of technology, how it has a long history that doesn’t begin only in the last decade, and how, like any other history, it is important for us to understand in order to grow from it. This book challenges the idea of innovation and technology in the 21st century and I finish this book feeling challenged to explore technology not as a sexy, new-age tool for innovation, but as an unsexy, practical resource that is rooted in helping people.

Good but not the best

I'm very grateful for book like Brousard's that is helping to bring sanity to the industry and the limits of current AI and Machine Learning technologies. However, sometimes it was difficult to know whether Brousard was writing everything about the tech industry/culture she did not like or book the limits of the technology. Being in the industry and despite agreeing with some of her opinions, it really took away from the book. A lot more thorough book (not without it's own shortcomings) is Gary Smith's 'AI Delusion'.

Strengths
-Shows computers aren't magic boxes
-Common pitfalls of computers (i.e. the limits of plain math and statistica)
-Potential biases from the developers

Weaknesses
-Heavy cultural grievances
-Almost exclusively focused on current technology (i.e. not exploring the frontiers like current AGI research which is distinctly different than current tech and how non-deterministic Turing Machine like Quantum Computing may change things) She only covers humans in the loop computing.

This book is the whole Megillah

Meredith Broussard opens up the field of AI in every important way in this book. She introduces us to the history, examines the faults of relying blindly on data sets through examples we can relate to (such as tragic, fatal outcomes from the titanic), identifies systematic flaws in our education program through her investigative and personal experience in PA and helps us understand her conclusion that AI is a misnomer.

Artificial au intelligence affirms that AI is exciting and powerful and presents tremendous opportunity but levelsets our expectations. Computers do not demonstrate ‘intelligence’ in the way that we too often and hope and describe AI.

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the machines that are fueling pivotal afunctions and tremendous investment in our world.

Terrific book to understand the realities of AI

great narrative on our perceptions of and realities of Artificial Intelligence. True understanding of what these tools are, there shortcomings and pitfalls are is where real wisdom of this book is. Should be required reading for anyone living in the 21st century!!!

Insightful and very interesting

Really loved her perspective and thoughts. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in using A.I. or who wants to understand more about ethical computing.

Disappointing

I had hoped for some insights into things computers can’t do, and why they’re unsuited to those tasks. With the exception of the chapter on self-driving cars, Instead, what is presented are tasks computers are good at, but their solutions contradict the author’s vision of how the world should be ordered. Kind of a bait-and-switch.

If you think the trouble with big tech companies is that the employees are just too libertarian, by all means try this book. At least it won’t cost you anything while it’s in the Audible Plus library.

The reader is fine, but mispronounced quite a few words. (Actually, they may have been stumbles, but then why not do another take?)