The AI Conundrum

Harnessing the Power of AI for Your Organization--Profitably and Safely

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$32.95 US
The MIT Press
14 per carton
On sale Aug 06, 2024 | 9780262048996
Sales rights: World

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A timely, practical guide to AI—its strengths, weaknesses, and real-world applications—for business professionals and policymakers.


Artificial intelligence, or AI, can recognize a pattern from any set of data it is given, which is what makes it such an extraordinarily powerful tool. But because not all patterns are authentic or reliable, AI’s pattern-finding superpower can lead to spurious patterns—and to disastrous results for business and government entities that rely on them. Hence the conundrum at the heart of AI: its greatest strength can also be its greatest weakness. Targeting the businessperson who needs to know how to use AI profitably and responsibly, Caleb Briggs and Rex Briggs offer in this book a foundational understanding of AI that is easy to grasp yet thorough enough to be used effectively.

The AI Conundrum:
•   Draws on the authors’ diverse expertise—in pure math, computer science, marketing, data science, and business—to make AI concepts and applications approachable for readers of all tech levels.
•   Provides a framework for comparing AI to the next best alternative, and for gauging where AI is likely be successful—or to pose greater risk than benefits.
•   Includes dozens of real-world case studies highlighting the successes and failures of AI applications across various industries.
•   Offers actionable insights for responsible implementation and risk mitigation.
•   Provides a worksheet for identifying potential problem areas, a cost-benefit analysis, and a companion website.
The AI Conundrum is an invaluable resource for professionals and students seeking a full understanding of AI—its applications, limitations, and ethical considerations—as we enter a brave new era.
Foreword
Greg Stuart
Preface
Introduction
Part 1: The Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence
1. Artificial Intelligence Is Not Human Intelligence   
2. How AI Fits Patterns   
3. How AI Uses Gradient Descent   
4. Edge Cases, Compression, and the Limits of Associative Intelligence   
5. Precision, Input Control and the Rationale for Decisions   
6. Assessing Risk in AI Applications   
Part 2: Opportunities, Risks, Countermeasures, and & Critical Questions
7. Case Studies in AI: The AI Revolution and the Sales and Marketing Case Studies   
8. Case Studies in AI: Translations, MRIs, Fraud Detection, Autonomous Vehicles, and the Impact of AI on Labor   
9. Case Studies in AI: Using AI to Trade in Markets   
10. Cases Studies in AI: Bias in Facial Recognition, Hiring and Advertising   
11. The Conundrum
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
Index
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A USA TODAY bestseller


"While AI’s pattern recognition capabilities can allow workers to skip dreary, repetitive tasks, they’re famously unreliable. Faulty data leads to biased results, and AI can “hallucinate,” seeing patterns where none exist and producing garbled results. The authors—Caleb is a student at Reed College, and his father, Rex, is an AI subject matter expert at a marketing trade organization—dispense a just-the-facts tutorial on how AI works and how professionals can use it to best advantage in their businesses.”
Publishers Weekly

About

A timely, practical guide to AI—its strengths, weaknesses, and real-world applications—for business professionals and policymakers.


Artificial intelligence, or AI, can recognize a pattern from any set of data it is given, which is what makes it such an extraordinarily powerful tool. But because not all patterns are authentic or reliable, AI’s pattern-finding superpower can lead to spurious patterns—and to disastrous results for business and government entities that rely on them. Hence the conundrum at the heart of AI: its greatest strength can also be its greatest weakness. Targeting the businessperson who needs to know how to use AI profitably and responsibly, Caleb Briggs and Rex Briggs offer in this book a foundational understanding of AI that is easy to grasp yet thorough enough to be used effectively.

The AI Conundrum:
•   Draws on the authors’ diverse expertise—in pure math, computer science, marketing, data science, and business—to make AI concepts and applications approachable for readers of all tech levels.
•   Provides a framework for comparing AI to the next best alternative, and for gauging where AI is likely be successful—or to pose greater risk than benefits.
•   Includes dozens of real-world case studies highlighting the successes and failures of AI applications across various industries.
•   Offers actionable insights for responsible implementation and risk mitigation.
•   Provides a worksheet for identifying potential problem areas, a cost-benefit analysis, and a companion website.
The AI Conundrum is an invaluable resource for professionals and students seeking a full understanding of AI—its applications, limitations, and ethical considerations—as we enter a brave new era.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Greg Stuart
Preface
Introduction
Part 1: The Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence
1. Artificial Intelligence Is Not Human Intelligence   
2. How AI Fits Patterns   
3. How AI Uses Gradient Descent   
4. Edge Cases, Compression, and the Limits of Associative Intelligence   
5. Precision, Input Control and the Rationale for Decisions   
6. Assessing Risk in AI Applications   
Part 2: Opportunities, Risks, Countermeasures, and & Critical Questions
7. Case Studies in AI: The AI Revolution and the Sales and Marketing Case Studies   
8. Case Studies in AI: Translations, MRIs, Fraud Detection, Autonomous Vehicles, and the Impact of AI on Labor   
9. Case Studies in AI: Using AI to Trade in Markets   
10. Cases Studies in AI: Bias in Facial Recognition, Hiring and Advertising   
11. The Conundrum
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
Index

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Praise

A USA TODAY bestseller


"While AI’s pattern recognition capabilities can allow workers to skip dreary, repetitive tasks, they’re famously unreliable. Faulty data leads to biased results, and AI can “hallucinate,” seeing patterns where none exist and producing garbled results. The authors—Caleb is a student at Reed College, and his father, Rex, is an AI subject matter expert at a marketing trade organization—dispense a just-the-facts tutorial on how AI works and how professionals can use it to best advantage in their businesses.”
Publishers Weekly