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Intelligence Verdict
Books about AI · Arguments

AI Snake Oil.

What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference. By Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor. Two computer scientists explain what AI can and can't do, why it often fails, and how to see through misleading claims.

  • 2024published Sep 24, 2024
  • Argumentsthe case for, against and in between, from people who made it their work
The book

What it is.

Every detail checked against the publisher’s page on Oct 18, 2026.

AI Snake OilWhat Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference

By Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor

Two computer scientists explain what AI can and can't do, why it often fails, and how to see through misleading claims.

From the publisher“cut through the confusion to give you an essential understanding of how AI works and why it often doesn’t” Source
The publisher’s page
Title
AI Snake OilWhat Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference
Authors
Arvind Narayanan, Sayash Kapoor
Publisher
Princeton University Press
Published
Sep 24, 2024
Kind
ArgumentsThe case for, against and in between, from people who made it their work.
What a reviewer said

From the review.

“squarely achieve their stated goal: to empower people to distinguish AI that works well from AI snake oil”
Science News, Sep 3, 2024

Details checked Oct 18, 2026. Nobody pays to be listed. The cover is our own design, not the publisher's.