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.

- S.C. Stuart

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.

PCMag: Dr. Shane, can you explain your day job at Boulder Nonlinear Systems, where you make computer-controlled holograms for studying the brain and photonics (light-steering) devices?

Dr. Janelle Shane: Sure! I work as a research scientist at a small company that develops new ways to steer light. I get to work in a bunch of different areas because there are lots of applications. Studying the brain is a big one—there are scientists who use our programmable holograms for studying the way neurons are connected in the brain of a mouse.

That sounds weird and wonderful in itself. What’s the strangest project you’ve ever worked on?

One of the strangest projects I worked on was developing a virtual reality arena for mantis shrimp.

The mind boggles. Okay, now give us the backstory on writing this book.

We’re dealing more and more with artificial intelligence in our daily lives—algorithms that determine which ads we see, or who gets a loan, all the way to partially or completely human-powered systems that still get sold as “AI.” I wanted to create a fun and approachable way for people to learn about AI because almost everyone’s going to need to know the basics.

How did that title come about?