

#828
Mentioned in 25 episodes
AI Snake Oil
What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference
Book • 2024
AI Snake Oil cuts through the confusion surrounding AI by explaining how it works, where it might be useful or harmful, and when companies are using AI hype to sell ineffective products.
The book acknowledges the potential of some AI, like ChatGPT, while uncovering rampant misleading claims and describing serious harms in areas such as education, medicine, hiring, banking, insurance, and criminal justice.
It explains the differences between types of AI, why organizations fall for AI snake oil, and warns of the dangers of unaccountable big tech companies controlling AI.
The book acknowledges the potential of some AI, like ChatGPT, while uncovering rampant misleading claims and describing serious harms in areas such as education, medicine, hiring, banking, insurance, and criminal justice.
It explains the differences between types of AI, why organizations fall for AI snake oil, and warns of the dangers of unaccountable big tech companies controlling AI.
Mentioned by

































Mentioned in 25 episodes
Mentioned by 

when discussing the need for specific terminology in the AI field.


Pat Pataranutaporn

264 snips
Echo Chambers of One: Companion AI and the Future of Human Connection
Mentioned by 

as the next book to be discussed on the podcast.


Cory Hixson

248 snips
227: Lean Learning by Pat Flynn
Mentioned by 

in the introduction, highlighting 

's and Sayash Gopur's collaborative work on AI risks.


Sam Charrington


Arvind Narayanan

168 snips
AI Agents: Substance or Snake Oil with Arvind Narayanan - #704
Mentioned as a listener recommendation that Cory wants to read to learn more about AI.

100 snips
226: The 5 Resets by Dr. Aditi Nerurkar
Mentioned by 

as a leading professor in computer science who wrote the book.


Patrick Chase

74 snips
Ep 54: Princeton Researcher Arvind Narayanan on the Limitations of Agent Evals, AI’s Societal Impact & Important Lessons from History
Mentioned by 

in the introduction as a co-author.


Harry Stebbings

67 snips
20VC: AI Scaling Myths: More Compute is not the Answer | The Core Bottlenecks in AI Today: Data, Algorithms and Compute | The Future of Models: Open vs Closed, Small vs Large with Arvind Narayanan, Professor of Computer Science @ Princeton


Sinan Ozdemir

55 snips
903: LLM Benchmarks Are Lying to You (And What to Do Instead), with Sinan Ozdemir
Mentioned by 

as an argument against the imminence of AGI's transformative power.


Josh Kale

49 snips
The Intelligence Curse: How AGI Makes Us All Obsolete | Luke Drago & Rudolf
Book for today's discussion, authored by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, both from Princeton.

44 snips
228: AI Snake Oil by Arvid Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor
Mentioned by ![undefined]()

when introducing the debate with the man who also wrote it.

David Hoffmann

37 snips
The New OpenAI Gadget Will Change The World | AI Calls The Cops | AI Agent OnlyFans
Mentioned by 

at the end of the podcast as a book to pre-order.


Tim Scarfe

30 snips
Sayash Kapoor - How seriously should we take AI X-risk? (ICML 1/13)
Discussed by 

and ![undefined]()

as a critical examination of artificial intelligence, focusing on its limitations and exaggerated claims.


Sayash Kapoor

John Xavier

15 snips
Ep22: Demystifying AI and separating hype from genuine progress
Mentioned by ![undefined]()

as a book that calls out crystal ball AI and predictive AI.

Andy Steiger

11 snips
Has A.I. Become an Idol?
Mentioned by 

as a timely new book discussing AI capabilities and limitations.


Martin Reeves

AI Snake Oil with Sayash Kapoor
Mentioned by ![undefined]()

, referencing the book's discussion of predictive algorithms in high-stakes areas.

Megan McCarty Carino

NYC's child welfare agency uses AI to scrutinize marginalized families, recent investigation finds
Mentioned by 

in the context of AI companies pivoting from building a god to creating products.


Greg Epstein

Tech Agnostic (with Greg Epstein)
Mentioned by ![undefined]()

as the book written by 

and Sayaj Kapoor on the topic of AI.

Michael Krigsman


Arvind Narayanan

AI Snake Oil: Princeton Professor Exposes AI Truths | #867
Mentioned by 

when discussing AI and the law.


Thomas Smith

Ok, but Would AI Judges Really Be Any Worse?
Mentioned by ![undefined]()

as a book co-authored by Sayash Kapoor.

Megan McCarty Carino

Small tweaks to AI prompts can have significant impacts on output
Mentioned by 

while discussing AI capabilities and generalization.


Nathan Labenz

AI Discourse Deranged: Assessing LLM Generalization Takes and Polarizing Regulatory Debate