This review, written by Aarthi Vadde, has now been published in Critical AI at this link https://doi.org/10.1215/2834703X-11700273; an extract is pasted in below. If your institution lacks access to Critical AI please encourage them to subscribe. If you are an independent scholar please write to criticalai@sas.rutgers.edu.
EXTRACT:
So much is written about AI, but how much is said? To those working in the various fields of machine learning, or for scholars like me studying the history and literature of artificial intelligence, today’s discourse is more noise than signal. Breathless news articles, product launches, and vitriolic takedowns of those articles and launches tell us little about how AI systems work, whether a new scientific advance has really been made, or what the daily uptake of these systems looks like after the hype wears off. Perhaps going under the hood of AI seems too technical for the marketplace and a focus on use cases too banal in comparison to speculations on an AI-driven future. True believers in artificial general intelligence, accelerationists (those who believe that AI will usher in a more utopian society), and doomers (those who believe that AI poses an existential threat to mankind) are not just…