You Look Like a Thing and I Love you : : how Artificial Intelligence Works and why It's Making the World a Weirder Place

Locations
Call Number: 006.3 Sh, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Technology & Engineering / Shane, Janelle
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	006.3 Sh	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Technology & Engineering / Shane, Janelle	4-week checkout	Due 05-07-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Technology & Engineering / Shane, Janelle	4-week checkout	Due 05-11-2024

"You look like a thing and I love you" is one of the best pickup lines ever... according to an artificial intelligence trained by scientist Janelle Shane, creator of the popular blog AI Weirdness. She creates silly AIs that learn how to name paint colors, create the best recipes, and even flirt (badly) with humans--all to understand the technology that governs so much of our daily lives. We rely on AI every day for recommendations, for translations, and to put cat ears on our selfie videos. We also trust AI with matters of life and death, on the road and in our hospitals. But how smart is AI really... and how does it solve problems, understand humans, and even drive self-driving cars? Shane delivers the answers to every AI question you've ever asked, and some you definitely haven't. Like, how can a computer design the perfect sandwich? What does robot-generated Harry Potter fan-fiction look like? And is the world's best Halloween costume really "Vampire Hog Bride"? In this smart, often hilarious introduction to the most interesting science of our time, Shane shows how these programs learn, fail, and adapt--and how they reflect the best and worst of humanity. You Look Like a Thing and I Love You is the perfect book for anyone curious about what the robots in our lives are thinking."--Amazon.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Someplace between "engaging" and "repetitive." submitted by valeriemates on June 19, 2020, 10:41pm I have a college degree in computer science, so I am not the book's intended audience. This book is intended for introducing the average person to some concepts of artificial intelligence. Since my degree is from long ago, and the field of AI is changing rapidly, I chose this book because I thought it would be an engaging overview of what is new in the field since I graduated.

The author does a lovely job of presenting AI concepts in an approachable way. I learned a couple of new things. But I keep up with my profession enough that the vast majority of the book was topics that I already knew about. After a while, the book felt repetitive. Getting through it was a slow slog.

I think the average person who hasn't studied computer science would still find it repetitive, and if you keep up with the news you might well already know a lot of what is presented in this book. But on the other hand, it's nice to have this discussion of AI all in one place, and the author's engaging drawings really are adorable and help to get the point across.

So, well -- maybe?