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Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots by John Markoff
kaflurbaleen's review against another edition
3.0
I’m super interested in this content BUT something about this book made it take me almost 4 years to read. Maybe it’s that ITS BASICALLY ALL DUDES mentioned in this book, including glorifying some people who’ve sexually harassed other people (outed after this book was written).
beets_enjoyer's review against another edition
2.0
I really liked the premise of this book. There is a truly compelling, memetic core in the idea of AI vs. IA and the implications these two schools of software design hold for our future as a society. Unfortunately, the narration in Machines of Loving Grace is much too weak to do the premise justice. The premise almost seems to have been added on after the fact, to justify hours and dollars spent to interview a parade of white, male subjects whose personal stories are, to be frank, not that interesting.
Having dipped my toes into machine learning, I feel I can say with some certainty that these are incredibly talented and intelligent people. I do not intend the above to demean them in any way. But ultimately, it is the synthesis of their contributions – not their minor tribulations through gifted programs, elite schools and VC funding rounds – that interests me. The author is not able to weed out what's important from what's not, and ends up wasting his ink on trivial details in a book that is supposedly about the big issues.
Funnily enough, these are issues that Machines shares with another recent book, [b:Data-ism: The Revolution Transforming Decision Making, Consumer Behavior, and Almost Everything Else|21936838|Data-ism The Revolution Transforming Decision Making, Consumer Behavior, and Almost Everything Else|Steve Lohr|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1416780596s/21936838.jpg|41240449] by Steve Lohr. Like Markoff, Lohr is also a science writer at the New York Times. The two share a shallow understanding of technology. Something else they share is a sycophantic reverence for their subjects. So strongly does this come through, at times, that it is at the expense of almost all narrative and thematic strength in their writing. Judging by these two books, one has to wonder whether the Old Gray Lady really has the best people onboard to tackle critical issues like data science and artificial intelligence, and if the torch were not better passed to some hungry young writers instead.
Clearly, the book demonstrates a more than passable level of journalistic craftmanship. Effort went into fact-checking, archive research and conducting interviews. But this craftmanship ultimately ends up in service of nothing. The book largely goes nowhere with its big themes aside from some token efforts at the end. Not recommended.
Having dipped my toes into machine learning, I feel I can say with some certainty that these are incredibly talented and intelligent people. I do not intend the above to demean them in any way. But ultimately, it is the synthesis of their contributions – not their minor tribulations through gifted programs, elite schools and VC funding rounds – that interests me. The author is not able to weed out what's important from what's not, and ends up wasting his ink on trivial details in a book that is supposedly about the big issues.
Funnily enough, these are issues that Machines shares with another recent book, [b:Data-ism: The Revolution Transforming Decision Making, Consumer Behavior, and Almost Everything Else|21936838|Data-ism The Revolution Transforming Decision Making, Consumer Behavior, and Almost Everything Else|Steve Lohr|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1416780596s/21936838.jpg|41240449] by Steve Lohr. Like Markoff, Lohr is also a science writer at the New York Times. The two share a shallow understanding of technology. Something else they share is a sycophantic reverence for their subjects. So strongly does this come through, at times, that it is at the expense of almost all narrative and thematic strength in their writing. Judging by these two books, one has to wonder whether the Old Gray Lady really has the best people onboard to tackle critical issues like data science and artificial intelligence, and if the torch were not better passed to some hungry young writers instead.
Clearly, the book demonstrates a more than passable level of journalistic craftmanship. Effort went into fact-checking, archive research and conducting interviews. But this craftmanship ultimately ends up in service of nothing. The book largely goes nowhere with its big themes aside from some token efforts at the end. Not recommended.
author_d_r_oestreicher's review against another edition
4.0
Machines of Loving Grace by John Markoff is an admiring history of Silicon Valley and artificial intelligence. As with many writers who have visited The Valley, he has been entranced by the mythology of the companies and hagiography of the people.
In addition to worshipful anecdotes of the last sixty years, the author explores an interesting tension between two schools of technology developers. The first is artificial intelligence (AI) with the goal of computers that replace humans. The other is intelligence augmentation (IA) which keeps humans in the loops, but just strives to make them more efficient and effective.
The organization of the book is a collection of mini-histories. The result can be a bit jarring as the timeline is repeated between chapters, and sometimes within chapters.
For the purpose of this book, the pinnacle of technology is Siri. I recommend this book for anyone who has worked in Silicon Valley and wants to bask in the glory one more time.
For more see: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2016/01/machines-of-loving-grace-by-john-markoff.html
In addition to worshipful anecdotes of the last sixty years, the author explores an interesting tension between two schools of technology developers. The first is artificial intelligence (AI) with the goal of computers that replace humans. The other is intelligence augmentation (IA) which keeps humans in the loops, but just strives to make them more efficient and effective.
The organization of the book is a collection of mini-histories. The result can be a bit jarring as the timeline is repeated between chapters, and sometimes within chapters.
For the purpose of this book, the pinnacle of technology is Siri. I recommend this book for anyone who has worked in Silicon Valley and wants to bask in the glory one more time.
For more see: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2016/01/machines-of-loving-grace-by-john-markoff.html
schnoebs13's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like the author knew what he was talking about but at the same time he wasn't sure about anything. It seems like he identified the main topics that he wanted to discuss but after that he wasn't really sure where to go. There was no overarching story or even a time line to follow. The time periods kept jumping around all throughout the book and the closest to publishing date in this book came up in the middle of the second half (maybe sooner) and then jumped right back to somewhere in the 1980s. He also repeated himself a lot throughout the book as he transitoned from one topic to the next which made me feel like he didn't fully understand how the current sections connected with the others throughout the book.
I feel like I did learn something from this book but due to how it was written and formatted, it was too hard for me to properly follow along with all the major actors jumping from one coproration to another. It seemed almost like 20-25 mini biographes shoved into one book. Becasue of that, I don't think I gained as much from it as I could have. This was a major reason why I couldn't give this more than 3 stars.
I feel like I did learn something from this book but due to how it was written and formatted, it was too hard for me to properly follow along with all the major actors jumping from one coproration to another. It seemed almost like 20-25 mini biographes shoved into one book. Becasue of that, I don't think I gained as much from it as I could have. This was a major reason why I couldn't give this more than 3 stars.
williamstome's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely fantastic. Required reading for anyone working in AI, Robotics, HRI, etc.
lauren_endnotes's review against another edition
2.0
An exhaustive history of robotics and AI from the 1960s to development of Siri in the 2000s. The author is a journalist and digs deep into personal stories of everyone in early Silicon Valley and not enough into the technology itself.
I started this one last year, took a very long break, and pushed myself to finish.
It could have been so much better. The title made me think it would be.
I started this one last year, took a very long break, and pushed myself to finish.
It could have been so much better. The title made me think it would be.
taciturn_sprocket's review against another edition
2.0
such a promising premise, such poor execution.