AI Makes the World a Weirder Place, and That's Okay

Artificial intelligence can do some amazing things, but it's not perfect. Research scientist Dr. Janelle Shane has been cataloging "the sometimes hilarious, sometimes unsettling ways that algorithms get things wrong" on her website, AI Weirdness, and dives deeper into the topic in her new book, out this week. Time and time again, Dr. Shane's neural nets ingest the data she throws at them and spits out some strange stuff--from inedible recipes (horseradish brownies, anyone?) to bizarre cat names and paint colors from hell. At first glance, Dr. Shane's book--You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How AI Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place--seems like a lighthearted, cartoon-enhanced look at AI, but there are some lessons about human vulnerabilities. We spoke to Dr. Shane to find out why she wrote the book and what she hopes we'll learn from it.