AI Snake Oil is now available to preorder

What artificial intelligence can do, what it can't, and how to tell the difference

We are happy to share that our book AI Snake Oil is now available to preorder across online booksellers. The publication date is September 24, 2024. If you have enjoyed reading our newsletter and would like to support our work, please preorder the book via Amazon, Bookshop, or your favorite bookseller. 

What’s in the book

We get two recurring questions about the book: 

• In an area as fast moving as AI, how long can a book stay relevant? 

• How similar is the book to the newsletter?

The answer to both questions is the same. We know that book publishing moves at a slower timescale than AI. So the book is about the foundational knowledge needed to separate real advances from hype, rather than commentary on breaking developments. In writing every chapter, and every paragraph, we asked ourselves: will this be relevant in five years? This also means that there’s very little overlap between the newsletter and the book. 

AI Snake Oil book cover

In the book, we explain the crucial differences between types of AI, why people, companies, and governments are falling for AI snake oil, why AI can’t fix social media, and why we should be far more worried about what people will do with AI than about anything AI will do on its own. While generative AI is what drives press, predictive AI used in criminal justice, finance, healthcare, and other domains remains far more consequential in people’s lives. We discuss in depth how predictive AI can go wrong. We also warn of the dangers of a world where AI continues to be controlled by largely unaccountable big tech companies. 

The book is not just an explainer. Every chapter includes original scholarship. We plan to release exercises and discussion questions for classroom use; courses on the relationship between tech and society might benefit from the book. 

Preordering makes a big difference

This is the first time we’ve written a mass-market book. We learned that preordering a book, as opposed to ordering after release, can make a big difference to its success. Preorder sales are used by retailers to decide which books to stock and promote after release. They help books get recognized on best-seller lists. They allow our publishers to anticipate how many copies need to be printed and how the book should be distributed. They are also used by online booksellers to make algorithmic recommendations. In short, pre-ordering early is the best way to support our work. You can preorder the book from your local retailers via Bookshop.org or on Amazon.

A note of thanks

We couldn't have written AI Snake Oil without the support of Hallie Stebbins, our editor at Princeton University Press. The book was peer reviewed by three experts: Melanie Mitchell and two anonymous reviewers. We also received informal peer reviews from Matt Salganik, Molly Crockett, and Chris Bail. All of this feedback helped us improve the book immensely, and we are grateful for the reviewers’ time and thoughtful attention. We are also grateful to Alondra Nelson, Julia Angwin, Kate Crawford, and Melanie Mitchell, who took the time to read the book and write blurbs. 

Thank you to the over 25,000 of you who subscribe to this newsletter. We look forward to continuing to write the newsletter even after the book is published. Analyzing topical and pressing questions about AI using the foundational understanding we develop in the book has been one of the most rewarding parts of our work. We hope the book will be useful to you. Thank you for supporting us.

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Preorder links

US: Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes and Noble. UK: Blackwell’s, Waterstones. Canada: Indigo. Germany: Amazon, Kulturkaufhaus. The book is available to preorder internationally on Amazon. (Updated to add: Audiobook, Kindle, pre-order page on Princeton University Press, Indian Edition)