A fascinating, sobering, wide-ranging examination.
A study of how artificial intelligence “is altering the very experience of being human.”
Murgia, a British Indian tech journalist with the Financial Times, has been investigating AI for a decade (previously for Wired magazine), and her exploration takes readers to Nairobi, Amsterdam, the rural Indian village of Chinchpada, and the city of Salta, in Argentina, among other destinations. Defining AI as “a complex statistical software applied to finding patterns in large sets of real-world data,” of which generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are a “subset,” the author looks at how it affects the people who train it, use it, and are victimized by it. Among the first category are low-wage workers who label and describe images that may train, for instance, self-driving cars; among the second are health care providers in underserved areas who use AI-powered apps to assist with diagnoses. AI’s victims are many: women whose deepfaked images proliferate on pornographic websites; Uber Eats drivers whose pay is shorted by the algorithm; young people stigmatized by statistical software as likely to commit crime or to become pregnant; Uyghurs who live in China’s surveillance state; and content moderators forced to engage with hateful, violent material for hours on end. With chapter titles that illuminate AI’s effects on the self—e.g., Your Livelihood, Your Body, Your Freedom, Your Safety Net—the survey is peopled with vividly drawn subjects who help readers understand AI and its impact on a deeply personal level. Murgia has consciously reached beyond Silicon Valley to focus on the “global precariat,” a strategy that is valuable in its own humanizing right and also drives home how thoroughly implicated the developed world is in the continuing harms endured by the developing one. Throughout, the author writes with clarity and compassion in equal measure.
A fascinating, sobering, wide-ranging examination.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9781250867391
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.
Two bestselling authors engage in an enlightening back-and-forth about Jewishness and antisemitism.
Acho, author of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, and Tishby, author of Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, discuss many of the searing issues for Jews today, delving into whether Jewishness is a religion, culture, ethnicity, or community—or all of the above. As Tishby points out, unlike in Christianity, one can be comfortably atheist and still be considered a Jew. She defines Judaism as a “big tent” religion with four main elements: religion, peoplehood, nationhood, and the idea of tikkun olam (“repairing the world through our actions”). She addresses candidly the hurtful stereotypes about Jews (that they are rich and powerful) that Acho grew up with in Dallas and how Jews internalize these antisemitic judgments. Moreover, Tishby notes, “it is literally impossible to be Jewish and not have any connection with Israel, and I’m not talking about borders or a dot on the map. Judaism…is an indigenous religion.” Acho wonders if one can legitimately criticize “Jewish people and their ideologies” without being antisemitic, and Tishby offers ways to check whether one’s criticism of Jews or Zionism is antisemitic or factually straightforward. The authors also touch on the deteriorating relationship between Black and Jewish Americans, despite their historically close alliance during the civil rights era. “As long as Jewish people get to benefit from appearing white while Black people have to suffer for being Black, there will always be resentment,” notes Acho. “Because the same thing that grants you all access—your skin color—is what grants us pain and punishment in perpetuity.” Finally, the authors underscore the importance of being mutual allies, and they conclude with helpful indexes on vernacular terms and customs.
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781668057858
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon Element
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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