Understanding AI: What It Can and Cannot Do

Presented by MD Libraries Together and Baltimore County Public Library

If you're worried about AI, you're not alone. Hear from two of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI, what you need to know about AI and how to defend yourself against bogus AI claims and products.

There is a lot of misinformation swirling around AI. Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, authors of "AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t Do and How to Tell the Difference", can help you make sense of it all. Cut through the confusion, misunderstanding and hype around AI and learn how you can make better decisions about whether and how to use AI at work and home.

This event is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services & Technology Act administered by the Maryland State Library Agency.

About the Book: Confused about AI and worried about what it means for your future and the future of the world? You’re not alone. AI is everywhere—and few things are surrounded by so much hype, misinformation, and misunderstanding. In AI Snake Oil, computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Say ash Kapoor cut through the confusion to give you an essential understanding of how AI works and why it often doesn’t, where it might be useful or harmful, and when you should suspect that companies are using AI hype to sell AI snake oil—products that don’t work, and probably never will. (Source)

About the Authors: Arvind Narayanan is a professor of computer science at Princeton University and the director of the Center for Information Technology Policy. He studies the societal impact of digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence, and has co-authored a textbook on fairness and machine learning. He led the Princeton Web Transparency and Accountability Project to uncover how companies collect and use our personal information. Narayanan’s work was among the first to show how machine learning reflects cultural stereotypes, and his doctoral research showed the fundamental limits of de-identification. His book, AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t and How to Tell the Difference, co-written with Say ash Kapoor, takes readers through the major strains of AI to show what can work well alongside the inherent limitations.

Sayash Kapoor is a computer science Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy and a co-author of AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t and How to Tell the Difference, co-written with Arvind Narayanan. Say ash’s research focuses on the societal impact of AI. He is a recipient of a best paper award at ACM Fact and an impact recognition award at ACM CSCW and was included in TIME's inaugural list of the 100 most influential people in AI, along with Arvind Narayanan.