AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference by Arvind Narayanan and
Sayash Kapoor

Is artificial intelligence conquering the world? The term is, at least. Every screen suddenly has a logo either urging the user to try an A.I. service or signaling that an A.I. product has been delivered unbidden. Shares of Nvidia, which manufactures A.I. chips, have tripled in value, making the company worth more than tech behemoths Microsoft and Apple.

Before everyone submits to the artificial-intelligence revolution, though, Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor—a Princeton professor and graduate student, respectively, in computer science—hope the public can get a few things straight.