A realist’s introduction to AI that dispels confusion while advising caution.
Kyubwa, an adjunct professor of computer science at Sierra College, offers an introduction to artificial intelligence that seeks to demystify the technology for newcomers and professionals alike.
In late 2022, generative AI went from being a technological curiosity to an everyday part of life, entering classrooms, offices, and homes at startling speed. Keeping pace with this tech may seem daunting, and Kyubwa’s introductory guidebook explains in plain language what machine learning and large language models are, what they can do, why they seem reliable, and how they fail. The key danger in their failure is scale, says the author, since systems built to recognize patterns, rather than understand nuance and meaning, can confidently produce and repeat errors, causing far greater disruption than any single person’s mistake could. The guide treats the idea that AI will wholly replace humans as a myth, arguing instead that it can reshape tasks and responsibilities, thus making AI literacy a necessary skill. Over the book’s four sections, Kyubwa notes that such literacy involves understanding AI’s limitations, managing its impact on day-to-day life, questioning its outputs, never letting it replace human judgment, and never ignoring its social impact. Along the way, the author offers lessons in building better prompts, as well as hypothetical case studies to be aware, and wary, of when using AI. Kyubwa approaches AI in a matter-of-fact manner, avoiding both the hyperbolic enthusiasm and nigh-apocalyptic prophesizing that’s common among proponents and opponents, respectively. The author’s central theme—that AI can assist but never replace human judgment—is timely, and his book presents accessible, practical breakdowns of how AI works and how best to use it. The book also features colorful AI-generated graphics, extensive appendices, and useful discussions of ethics, governance, and differences in how people in the United States, Europe, and Africa use it. Each section is easy to understand, with copious crossover restating primary points. This repetition acts as an effective teaching tool, although it does weigh the guide down at times.
A realist’s introduction to AI that dispels confusion while advising caution.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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