Mark Cuban says you -- yes, you -- need to understand how AI works

If, by some chance, you find yourself in Mark Cuban's bathroom, make sure to check out the reading materials. "If you go in my bathroom, there's a book, Machine Learning for Idiots," Cuban said on the latest episode of Recode Media. "Whenever I get a break, I'm reading it." That means everyone, including and especially business owners, are at risk if they don't educate themselves now. "There'll be a time when people take AI and its impact for granted, but if you don't know how to use it and you don't understand it and you can't at least at have a basic understanding of the different approaches and how the algorithms work, you can be blindsided in ways you couldn't even possibly imagine," Cuban said. "Algorithms are a function, literally, of the people who write them. Whoever they are, whatever they are, that's what you're going to get," he added. "If you don't know any better, it's like if you just had somebody who wrote software and didn't know anything about your business. There's going to be all kinds of risks involved. You have to understand it." You can listen to Recode Media wherever you get your podcasts -- including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, and Overcast. Below, we've shared a lightly edited full transcript of Peter's conversation with Mark, recorded live at Vox Media's The Deep End at South by Southwest 2019. I do a lot of these interviews now, either on a stage like this or at our own conferences or podcasts, and the thing I've learned over years is the best guest you can ever have is a billionaire who owns his or her own company because they can say whatever they want. So that's what we set up for you today. You answer your own emails. You know, I'm talented like that. Thank you for doing that. I'm not going to ask you if you are running for president. Because that's a boring ... I'm gonna get a boring answer. If you did run for president, like everyone else at South By Southwest, what would you campaign on? You put me on the spot. Let's just start by what I think is important, right, and I'm not a candidate so I don't give a shit if you like it or don't like it. First is common sense, right? Second is trying to bring people together.