A fascinating and meticulous consideration of one of the central issues of our time.
Powell and Kleiner reflect on the moral dilemmas posed by the rise of artificial intelligence in this nonfiction work.
The authors (of AI advisory firm Kleiner Powell International) observe that the recent proliferation of popular apps driven by artificial intelligence (AI), like ChatGPT, have provoked urgent debate about the moral ramifications of new AI technology. They assert that these issues will only become more important and complex as more people take up residence in a “data-centric world,” and that they require systematic frameworks to understand and resolve them. Powell and Kleiner focus on what they call “Triple-A” systems, which are “algorithmic, autonomous, and automated,” and, as “sociotechnical” systems, “depend just as much on human and social elements as on the technology.” To understand these systems, the authors convincingly argue for the integration of four very different and often conflicting perspectives: that of the engineer, who tends to focus on customer satisfaction and solutions to highly technical problems; that of the social justice activist, concerned with morally satisfying all stakeholders, especially the disenfranchised; that of the corporate leader, narrowly interested in the accumulation of profit; and that of the governmental leader, driven by the satisfaction of national interests (as well as partisan political gain). Powell and Kleiner take the reader on an edifying tour of seven key principles, including risk, transparency, and the protection of personal data rights. They combine scientific rigor with philosophic depth to probe the issue at the heart of the AI debate: the human impact of a technology increasingly liberated from human superintendence. “The core of the AI dilemma is not the ability of machines to learn. It is the ability of humans to learn to manage the growing abilities of these new systems. To gain real control, instead of illusory control, we need to raise our own awareness and ability first.” For the reader in search of a single-volume introduction to these vexing issues, one could do no better.
A fascinating and meticulous consideration of one of the central issues of our time.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 978-1523004195
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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