REVIEWED BY PETER KASSAN
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2019. 336 pp. $28. ISBN 13:9780374257835
THERE ARE A LOT OF BOOKS ABOUT artificial intelligence. The interlibrary site Worldcat lists over 36,000. Amazon claims to have over 20,000 for sale. Many contain histrionic titles, such as Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence; You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works, Why It’s Making the World a Weirder Place; and especially The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. Melanie Mitchell’s new book is more modestly titled, but it is, in my opinion after surveying much of this literature, the most intelligent book on the subject. Mitchell is Professor of Computer Science at Portland State University as well as External Professor and Co-Chair of the Science Board at the Santa Fe Institute. And, unlike most active practitioners in the field, her evaluation of the current state of AI and its prospects is measured, cautious, and often skeptical.