Raising AI to be responsible adult

AI touches every aspect of our lives and there are books a plenty on how to use it, Nell Watson’s book focusses entirely on the thorny issues of the risks of the technology and the need to control how it’s used.

Starting with the history of AI she works through every aspect that needs to be considered in unleashing such a powerful technology. En route she discusses the pros and cons and provides leadership pointers for businesses looking to benefit from AI.

This may not be the easiest read but it is timely, informative, balanced and deeply thought provoking. Whether you’re an individual concerned about AI’s reach into our lives, someone working in the field or a business looking to utilise AI you’ll find plenty to inform your views of, and dealings with, AI.

I was given this book from the author via netgalley only for the pleasure of reading and leaving an honest review should I choose to.

I feel like this book could have talked (more) about the ethical ramifications of emergent tech, It could have been more approachable for lay-people.
There are no "taming" answers in here - AI is out of the box and while this book talks about some cases that you could use it for, I feel the current AI is already out of the boundaries of the contents of this book in some ways.
Well written, but may be dated already by release in sobe ways, which is a pity.

I found this an interesting read but would think you might need to have some background interest in AI, they do cover the basics but very briefly and you may need to keep flicking between pages to follow which abbreviations are which etc. her

I found this an excellent read, which sums up the current state of development of AI computing and looks at some pathways and some possible outcomes. Each chapter has the references at the end so it's easy to follow, and there's a glossary but no index. The writing is nicely done and there are some clear tables that are very helpful.

I think readers will benefit from having read some other books before coming to this one. For instance I had read the mentioned books by Neal Stephenson, Nick Bostrom, Robin Hanson, and more not mentioned, which had covered the issue of Target sending vouchers for pregnancy products to a young teen girl, etc., how AI batches are trained to physical work, or the Go moves in the computer match against the master, rather better and at more length. But you can hunt these up if interested. The topic is AI and this author wants to stick to it. Familiarity with the topic also means you know terms like LLM, IOT and AGI, which are explained briefly, but you don't want to keep flicking pages when they come up again. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is another item which it's assumed you'll know.

Continued on Goodreads.

In this book, Watson offers a comprehensive look at artificial intelligence from concept to creation and utilization along with the responsibilities we have for its ethical implementation in our everyday lives. I was particularly interested in the chapter about biases and the need for diversity in the data used to feed or teach AI. This is a wonderful book for the layperson who might be interested in learning more about the technology that is at our doorstep and quickly entering every aspect of our lives. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

A very interesting read and insight into AI.
I was expecting this to mainly focus on the ethical side of AI however this didn't really kick in until a good few chapters in and I didn't really come away with a more solid opinion on the ethics of AI. The structure of the book was a bit haphazard at times but overall a good read but I would say it is targeted more towards senior personnel in the Business & Technical world

AI has been a super-hot topic ever since ChatGPT became available to the masses at the end of 2022, and with that it feels like there's a pressing need to understand AI and to keep up with what it is and does. However, because of the rapid evolution of AI at this point of time, there's the risk that a print book might quickly date. Luckily, the book is essentially a general primer on AI, capturing all the key terms and foundational ideas of AI. The area of ethics only starts to be focused on from Chapter 6, which is called 'Governance', and it struck me here that the whole book would have been better shaped with 'AI governance' at its core, and perhaps developed as a form of AI governance roadmap. That way, the target audience would have been clearer. Instead, in its current manifestation, I'm not entirely clear who the target reader is. Those who have already been heavily involved in AI for the past couple of years might prematurely switch off after the first couple of chapters, as those contain general background info about AI, which is already generally known by those already working in the field. Each chapter ends with 'Leadership action points' which suggests the reader is in a management role, in which case this book is only going to help at a relatively superficial level. The action points are either too simplistic or over-complex. They are not targeted enough, or broken down into steps to be provide real practical support. Some chapters also essentially end up being glossaries, as they list and explain terms one after the other. Some re-structuring of this book could have made it more solid. Otherwise, I'd suggest that it's useful for those who haven't yet gotten on to the AI bandwagon and want some prompts to be able to start to think more deeply about the main issues in AI.

Do I believe AI could be used responsibly? Theoretically yes. Do I think people will use it responsibly? Sadly no. There will always be a few selfish, thoughtless greedy people who just won’t consider anyone else affected. That said this book attempts to wrestle with the undefeatable angel that is AI usage. The box is open, it’s not going away. We have to learn to live with it. So does this book teach you how to use AI ethically? Well no not really but it does at least broach the questions of what is going to be a very very long discussion. This is not one for the layman however. More businesses and tech leaders.

The description of ‘Taming the Machine’ says it ‘uncovers how you can responsibly harness the power of AI with confidence.’ There’s a big question in this promise as to who ‘you’ are, why you’re reading the book and what you hope to get from it.
Each chapter starts with a quote (directly or indirectly relating to AI and the chapter subject) and ends with ‘the bottom line’, ‘big picture’ sections and then a set of bullet pointed Leadership Action Points.
The author offers detailed (at times very detailed) technical specifications – including personal recommendations on certification to achieve to ‘use’ AI effectively, and certain sections do read a little like a company’s HR policy on what ‘good’ looks like. There are examples of good/ bad practice situations, but the majority tend to be theoretical and vague (‘a pharmaceutical company might…’) – perhaps this is a necessity of a ‘current’ book rather than one that is able to draw upon historical tried and proven cases one might find in many business/ strategy books but there were occasions when a little more example of what is being quoted would have helped me (The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking is mentioned but described only as ‘well established’. Similarly there is a reference to the significance of moves 37 and 78 in computer versus human Go challenge – is this common knowledge I should know without further detail of what ‘the hand of God’ move was?).
The author’s subject matter expertise is clear – there were certainly many things I was not clear on/ uncertain of/ completely unaware of throughout the book and parts of it (e.g.: in the privacy section) were thorough in their coverage (short paragraphs on everything from VPNs to Zero-Knowledge proofs to quantum-safe-encryption) but overall I ultimately came back to the question of ‘who’ the book is aimed at: the very macro orientated Leadership Action Points suggest a senior leadership team level reader, the specificity and complexity of detail suggest more of a data specialist.