mayarelmahdy's review
3.0
One of the longest six-hour-audios in my life. (Oxymoron, anyone?)
Ayanna Howard works in tech; she's a person of expertise and also knows what it's like for minorities in this age. Her perspective was very informative.
Do I know more about the topic? Yes.
Will I continue panicking? Also yes.
I don't think her solutions are very applicable, they sorta need people to be good and care and stuff. I don't feel safe thinking about it.
Though this book was quite insightful, it veered too much into autobiography territory and spiralled into unrelated topics -sometimes the author wrapped it up neatly but sometimes it was plainly irrelevant.
I plan to read more about this, but I think this is quite comprehensive when you look at its size.
Ayanna Howard works in tech; she's a person of expertise and also knows what it's like for minorities in this age. Her perspective was very informative.
Do I know more about the topic? Yes.
Will I continue panicking? Also yes.
I don't think her solutions are very applicable, they sorta need people to be good and care and stuff. I don't feel safe thinking about it.
Though this book was quite insightful, it veered too much into autobiography territory and spiralled into unrelated topics -sometimes the author wrapped it up neatly but sometimes it was plainly irrelevant.
I plan to read more about this, but I think this is quite comprehensive when you look at its size.
elizafiedler's review
3.0
Interesting, but doesn't go as deep into issues of bias as I hoped. I also have to agree with some of the criticism of the book as skewing solutionist -- assuming a technological or technocratic solution exists to most problems, regardless of the nature of the problem.
I was also disturbed by the disconnect between the argument being made in the book and some of the real-life interactions with humans described by the author -- like when she says she told a kid that robots would come to his house and seek revenge for his (very typical, childlike) behavior, i.e. poking her expensive robot. What?! That is not remotely the appropriate response to a child's misbehavior. Is that not an example of the kind of human bias that the author is arguing that we need to address critically? Why was this anecdote in the book? Mixed messages.
I was also disturbed by the disconnect between the argument being made in the book and some of the real-life interactions with humans described by the author -- like when she says she told a kid that robots would come to his house and seek revenge for his (very typical, childlike) behavior, i.e. poking her expensive robot. What?! That is not remotely the appropriate response to a child's misbehavior. Is that not an example of the kind of human bias that the author is arguing that we need to address critically? Why was this anecdote in the book? Mixed messages.
williamstome's review
5.0
Ayanna is fantastic as usual. I didn't agree with everything in this book, but most of it is fantastic and will do a wonderful job of exposing audible listeners to critical issues that they would otherwise likely not be aware of.
mayar_reading_stuff's review
3.0
One of the longest six-hour-audios in my life. (Oxymoron, anyone?)
Ayanna Howard works in tech; she's a person of expertise and also knows what it's like for minorities in this age. Her perspective was very informative.
Do I know more about the topic? Yes.
Will I continue panicking? Also yes.
I don't think her solutions are very applicable, they sorta need people to be good and care and stuff. I don't feel safe thinking about it.
Though this book was quite insightful, it veered too much into autobiography territory and spiralled into unrelated topics -sometimes the author wrapped it up neatly but sometimes it was plainly irrelevant.
I plan to read more about this, but I think this is quite comprehensive when you look at its size.
Ayanna Howard works in tech; she's a person of expertise and also knows what it's like for minorities in this age. Her perspective was very informative.
Do I know more about the topic? Yes.
Will I continue panicking? Also yes.
I don't think her solutions are very applicable, they sorta need people to be good and care and stuff. I don't feel safe thinking about it.
Though this book was quite insightful, it veered too much into autobiography territory and spiralled into unrelated topics -sometimes the author wrapped it up neatly but sometimes it was plainly irrelevant.
I plan to read more about this, but I think this is quite comprehensive when you look at its size.
marisa_n's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Sexism
a_h_haga's review
3.0
This was a very interesting read.
I don't know much about AI, so I was a little afraid that I wouldn't understand things in this book, but the tech aspects were described in a good way so even a noob like me would understand it. And it was very interesting to get a glimt into the history of the internet and tech and how it's all changed in just a few years.
It was well written, if a bit repetitive at times, and meandering. I often had trouble connecting the conclusion to the opening question, for the road there was very long and winding, but also interesting.
I think I'll give this book a reread some time in the future, and see if I understand the things I missed this time around better then.
I don't know much about AI, so I was a little afraid that I wouldn't understand things in this book, but the tech aspects were described in a good way so even a noob like me would understand it. And it was very interesting to get a glimt into the history of the internet and tech and how it's all changed in just a few years.
It was well written, if a bit repetitive at times, and meandering. I often had trouble connecting the conclusion to the opening question, for the road there was very long and winding, but also interesting.
I think I'll give this book a reread some time in the future, and see if I understand the things I missed this time around better then.