The AI Con: 06/06/25

The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna (2025) is the second book about AI I've read. The previous one, Future Tense by Martha Brockenbrough (2024) was written for teens. Bender and Hanna's book is written for adults and thankfully assumes a certain level of understanding of how computers work.

Rather than wasting time with numerous introductory chapters on how computers work, The AI Con goes right into what LLMs are and their development, beginning in the 1960s with ELIZA.

Where this book excels is at it's examination of the human toll of AI. People needed to train datasets, including looking at horrific stuff gleaned off the internet, and the people needed to remotely monitor "self driving" cars.

Where the book falls short (at least for this reader) is in the generative AI discussion. The LLMs (Chat GPT, for instance) are well discussed. The image generation aspect (beyond a brief discussion of deep-fakes) is still mostly ignored / left out.

But keeping in mind that this book is about the confidence game behind selling AI, I have to give this book full stars. It does keep its focus on the marketing of these programs for use in places where it has no business being used.

Five stars

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