You Look Like a Thing and I Love You

Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781472268990

Price: £20

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‘I can’t think of a better way to learn about artificial intelligence, and I’ve never had so much fun along the way’ Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Option B

AI is everywhere. It powers the autocorrect function of your iPhone, helps Google Translate understand the complexity of language, and interprets your behaviour to decide which of your friends’ Facebook posts you most want to see. In the coming years, it’ll perform medical diagnoses and drive your car – and maybe even help our authors write the first lines of their novels. But how does it actually work?

Scientist and engineer, Janelle Shane, is the go-to contributor about computer science for the New York Times, Slate, and the New Yorker. Through her hilarious experiments, real-world examples, and illuminating cartoons, she explains how AI understands our world, and what it gets wrong. More than just a working knowledge of AI, she hands readers the tools to be skeptical about claims of a smarter future.

A comprehensive study of the cutting-edge technology that will soon power our world, You Look Like a Thing and I Love You is an accessible and hilarious exploration of the future of technology and society. It’s Astrophysics for People In a Hurry meets Thing Explainer: an approachable guide to a fascinating scientific topic, presented with clarity, levity, and brevity by an expert in the field with a powerful and growing platform.

Reviews

Janelle Shane makes the kind of neural networks that go viral. Her quirky creations autonomously stumble and grumble ... the output of her networks is typically silly and charming in equal measure
Slate
An accessible primer ... illustrated with charming cartoons, oddball case studies (self-driving cars in Australia were confused by kangaroos), and wry observations about the often-hilarious failures of artificial intelligence to comprehend human contexts
Publishers Weekly
Janelle Shane is quickly becoming the internet's neural network queen
Nerdist
Creative and hilarious
New York Post
Janelle Shane of A.I. Weirdness is awesome
BoingBoing
If you're terrified that artificial intelligence is going to take over the world soon, you clearly haven't asked a computer to write pickup lines, name pets, or do anything else social or creative. Janelle Shane has, and she's the perfect tour guide to explain what machine learning can and can't do - and how it's already affecting your life. I can't think of a better way to learn about artificial intelligence, and I've never had so much fun along the way
Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of ORIGINALS
Machine learning algorithms are becoming more entrenched in our everyday lives, but they're far from perfect. Janelle Shane takes readers on a light-hearted adventure into the world of machine learning in the wild, examining what these algorithms are really learning - and what they're misunderstanding completely. If you're interested in learning about machine learning and artificial intelligence, trying to understand our robot overlords, or just love weird and interesting science, you can't miss this book
David Ha, Lead Researcher, Google Brain
This book is scary, not because of how smart AI is, but how weird and too often dysfunctional. If Janelle Shane is a real person, and not some kind of writing robot, she demonstrates the superiority of natural intelligence in the task of making a technical topic irresistibly funny and compelling
Roy Peter Clark, author of Writing Tools
While everyone else is making questionable predictions about the future of AI, Janelle Shane cuts through the fog by telling you how AI actually works. And, even better: she makes it fun!
Zach Weinersmith, creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, New York Times bestselling author of Soonish
Few recent innovations are so revolutionary as machine learning - and none are so poorly understood by the public, pundits, and policy makers. In You Look Like a Thing and I Love You, Janelle Shane delivers a fun, common-sense guide to the technology that's shaping our future
William Poundstone, author of Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?
Janelle Shane's goofy experiments with AI reveal a lot about the future. This book will make you laugh, but you'll also get a crash course in how AI works-and why it's not quite ready to take over the world. A delightful way to learn about the technology that's poised to change our lives
Annalee Newitz, author of Future of Another Timeline
Janelle Shane has hit the trifecta - the most hilarious, educational, and overall best explainer of artificial intelligence ever written (and drawn)
Eric Topol, author of Deep Medicine
You Look Like a Thing And I Love You is an incredibly accessible, informative, and (this is equally-important) hilarious look at how the AIs deciding things around us operate. They're not magic, and they're not even that mysterious - but in Janelle Shane's hands, they're hysterical
Ryan North, New York Times bestselling author of How to Invent Everything
If you're worried about what AI is doing to the world, this book may not exactly reassure you, but it will definitely equip you with greater understanding in a highly readable manner. Shane's sense of humor and enthusiasm for her topic shine through. Recommended for anyone who wants to better understand the strengths and limitations of artificial intelligence, but also for anyone who likes watching computers fail hilariously
Gretchen McCulloch, New York Times bestselling author of Because Internet