Is My Phone Reading My Mind?

The real facts about Artificial Intelligence

By Matt Agnew

Illustrations by Hana Kinoshita Thomson

Reviewed by Mia Macrossan

Dr Matt Agnew has a doctorate in astrophysics and a masters in artificial intelligence so he knows what he is talking about. His mission here is to explain everything you and your children need to know about AI and why you don’t need to be afraid of it. This is where you find what you don’t know and what you do need to know!

It’s a carefully designed and written discussion starting with definitions and explanations of what is AI, where do we find it in our everyday lives and interestingly and, importantly, what are the ethics involved. He talks about intelligence and consciousness, explains the difference between ethics and laws, between Kantian and Utilitarian ethics, and takes the time to show how an algorithm works. Even the Turing test gets a mention.

That’s the first part.

In Part Two Agnew talks about unintended bias, how AI can misused, the impact of AI on people and the AI control problem and roboethics. He discusses Isaac Asimov’s famous Three Laws of Robotics.  We learn how ‘any biases or prejudices in our world will be reflected in the data, and so while AI is not racist, sexist or prejudiced by design, the data from our world can be, and that can create dangerous algorithms’, p100.  He concludes by pointing out that AI will eventually be smarter than us and that we need to be prepared. His aim is not to alarm but to inform, to teach, and to recommend care and consideration.

This is not a quick read. It is a serious book with an important purpose but Agnew writes in a friendly and accessible way that makes artificial intelligence interesting and understandable. There is a lot to process here but it all follows logically from one step to the next. There is supplementary information scattered throughout the text: ‘fun bubbles’ of ‘fun facts, cool information or surprising details’ – big circles of text; and also ‘brain boxes’  – red rectangles which explain something in more detail. The illustrations are simple, straightforward and very helpful, as is the use of coloured pages every now and then to break up the flow of information.

An excellent resource for the home or school library, highly recommended.

Allen & Unwin Children’s 2024