Faking It: Artificial intelligence in a human world (Toby Walsh, La Trobe University Press)

In his opening chapter, Toby Walsh says Faking It is about ‘the artificiality of artificial intelligence’. At a time when venture capitalist-backed hustlers dominate the field and try to make money claiming AI is the solution to all our problems (especially if your problem is that you don’t want to pay workers), this is a refreshingly clear-eyed look at the actual strengths and weaknesses of AI. Throughout Walsh’s examination of a field he defines as ‘getting computers to do tasks that humans require intelligence to do’—note that machines may not require intelligence to do those tasks—Walsh keeps his tone breezy and informative. As one of the world’s leading researchers in AI, he argues AI is not coming for our jobs (and if it does, there’ll be new ones), but it is opening the door to a world where seeing is no longer believing, and where AI tracks our every move while corporations ‘ethics-wash’ their dodgy behaviour and governments (so far) do little. Faking It is an insightful and intelligent book that’s a must for those looking for facts about AI hype, as Walsh straightforwardly explains the many ways AI is, on some level, ‘fake’ and scams are a more immediate threat than self-aware killbots. We’ll still need our wits to make our way through the future but, fortunately, wits are something it’s unlikely computers will ever have.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Anthony Morris is a freelance reviewer, novelist, and podcaster. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Reviews