Confused about AI and worried about what it means for your future and the future of the world? You’re not alone. AI is everywhere—and few things are surrounded by so much hype, misinformation, and misunderstanding. In AI Snake Oil, computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor cut through the confusion to give you an essential understanding of how AI works and why it often doesn’t, where it might be useful or harmful, and when you should suspect that companies are using AI hype to sell AI snake oil—products that don’t work, and probably never will.
In the following videos, Arvind and Sayash introduce their book and address common questions about AI.
Sayash introduces AI Snake Oil
Arvind breaks down the differences between generative and predictive AI
Sayash on where he expects AI to progress the most in the next 10 years
Arvind explains how AI can be incorporated into education
Sayash looks at the impact facial recognition may have on social justice
Arvind outlines AI’s potential impact on healthcare
Sayash discusses his vision of what he would like the AI field to prioritize in the future
About the Authors
Arvind Narayanan is professor of computer science at Princeton University and director of its Center for Information Technology Policy. He is the coauthor of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies (Princeton) and Fairness and Machine Learning. Sayash Kapoor is a PhD candidate in computer science at Princeton. He previously worked as a software engineer at Facebook, where he helped create AI for content moderation. To learn more, please visit AISnakeOil.com.