Justin's Notes
Jun. 17, 2025
I read this book along with a group of co-workers for a book club. With the adoption of a multitude of AI products at my company, it seemed like a solid title to give an overview of AI, and it's purpose. I was only able to attend half the book club meetings, but I did take notes as I read, and you can find those at the bottom of the page if you are interested.
To preface, I honestly am not a huge AI fan. I use it at work regularly and know that it is a super useful tool for basically anything I do at my job as a software engineer. I have experienced a ton of productivity benefits from AI, but also feel like I am being constantly trolled by it. It has definitely made parts of my job easier and has been quite helpful, but I still find myself often either not trusting AI for specific things I work on, or just wanting to do it myself because it is something fun to build. Outside of work, my deliberate AI usage is minimal to almost none. I use it as a byproduct of using things like Siri, or when I google something and it gives the AI summary. But I do not pay for any AI, or use it as a Google replacement. It's probably a once a month occurrence that I am interacting with AI outside of work. Simply put, I would say that I don't really like AI, but I recognize how powerful it is and know it is being used more and more everywhere I look.
Okay now that we are past my own AI thoughts, I think the book was solid. I appreciated Mollick's introduction to the history of AI and how it has gotten to where it is now. Shoutout to the Twitter bot that turned into the actual worst version of humanity within like 30 minutes of being live. I remember that happening and laughing so hard that a bot become the most unhinged Twitter degenerate imaginable so quickly. Honestly, might be more of a critique on Twitter than it is on AI. I also think that Mollick did a good job presenting the ethical difficulties of AI, especially when it comes to copyrighted material to train it and especially as it expands as a creative tool. It was also interesting learning about how much humans are involved in training AI, and the ethical debates that the process itself has risen.
Mollick clearly loves AI and thinks it is incredible, even though he does mention downsides and difficulties with it. So taking that and my own opinions above, I did find some parts challenging to read purely based on the author's obsession with AI. I think that is natural though when reading something you aren't as passionate about. I do know it would drive me nuts being in one of his classes though 😂. If you love AI, I am sure you will ride the hype train right alongside him throughout the book and enjoy it.
If you want an overview of the world of AI, especially if it is still a fairly new concept to you, I would recommend this book if the topic is of interest to you. But you won't find me telling everyone I know they should read this.
