Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuvah Noah Hariri
AI at large
On how information might compromise our humanity in the age of AI
For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite allour discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive?
From the first attempt at correlating human neurons to logical reasonning to extensive examples on how unassisted AI producing unfair outputs that jeopardize the ideal of justice, this book by Brian Christian explores what it takes to trust machine learning with decisions that (truly) affect humans. What is called the alignment problem is the mismatch between the output of an artifial intelligence and the true intention of its operator.
A few questions this book tries to give an answer to
- How can one align human values with the imprevisible output of an AI system?
- The bias on race, gender is hard to fix as AI is mostly based on what happened, not on what the society aims as an ideal of social justice, how to remedy that?
Who should read this book?
Anyone interested in the effects of a machine learning system on a human group or humans altogether. It's a must read for all AI enthusiasts and operators really.
Takeaways
- The historical examples are well expanded and illustrative, albeit prolixe
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