Description

By Ben Byford

The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do, Erik J. Larson, 2021, 320pp., $30 hardback, Belknap Press, Cambridge MA, ISBN 978-0674983519

The Myth of Artificial Intelligence is just asking for disagreement, its title a clickbait challenge to AI addicts. Indeed, it has more than a smattering of religious undertone. I would go further than the author, Erik Larson, and categorize the myth peddlers as artificial intelligence (AI) zealots. What is AI? Though not made explicit in this book, the question is explored through historical context, mathematical logic, technical implementation, and the dream of human and superhuman intelli- gence (whatever intelligence is). It’s unclear what the author derides: is it the technologies under the banner of AI, big data projects or the idea of super intelligence?

page: 251 – 254
Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation
Volume 38, Issue 2
SKU: 380209