Artificial intelligence and machine learning are complex topic that require a lot of technical and mathematical understanding to make sense. Yet, Janelle Shane managed to get across lots of the ideas behind AI and ML without going too much into detail, using analogies that make sense to laymen.

For me as a designer, the topic is super interesting and relevant, but hard to understand in its entirety. While this book of course is not the single source of truth for anything AI, it is definitely a great introduction, written in a fun and digestible way, just as the title indicates.

This book is probably better as a printed copy than as an e-book on an e-reader. Lots of graphics are simply too small to be readable on a kindle, hence four stars instead of five.

We rely on AI every day for recommendations, for translations, and to put cat ears on our selfie videos. We also trust AI with matters of life and death, on the road and in our hospitals. But how smart is AI really... and how does it solve problems, understand humans, and even drive self-driving cars? Shane delivers the answers to every AI question you've ever asked, and some you definitely haven't. Like, how can a computer design the perfect sandwich? What does robot-generated Harry Potter fan-fiction look like? And is the world's best Halloween costume really "Vampire Hog Bride"? In this smart, often hilarious introduction to the most interesting science of our time, Shane shows how these programs learn, fail, and adapt—and how they reflect the best and worst of humanity. You Look Like a Thing and I Love You is the perfect book for anyone curious about what the robots in our lives are thinking. "I can't think of a better way to learn about artificial intelligence, and I've never had so much fun along the way." —Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals

Weird and wonderful! A recommended purchase for public nonfiction collections and a nice addition for high school collections.

This was such a fascinating book. I love the cover and loves the title. It was amazing to read and see all of the different types of AI that exist. If you’re not familiar with AI this is a great book to start with. Easy enough to read and understand. But it also felt very relatable. A great book!

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Little, Brown and Company in exchange for an honest review.

So fun fact: I am on a PhD program currently with 9 other students and about 5 of those students are doing hardcore AI projects. Personally I know nothing about AI and whenever they would talk about their research, I would automatically switch off. However, this doesn't build the best working relationship so I thought I would try reading around the area so I could at least carry a conversation with them.

This book is AMAZING. Honestly, it is written in such an engaging and accessible way that me, the anti AI queen, could not put it down. Firstly I should clarify what this book is not. It is not a deep guide to how to create or work with AI systems. Instead what it is is essentially an overview of what AI means, how it functions (on a very accessible level) and the wonderful mistakes the systems make. One of my favourite parts of this book is all the examples it gives of things generated by real life AI systems and they are hilarious! I was laughing so loud on the bus that people were giving me weird looks.

In terms of the layout, each chapter flows very naturally into the next one. I've already mentioned that I think it's accessible but things really are broken down very clearly. Shane has a fantastic style of prose which is informative but engaging, and I didn't even zone out once which is impressive for even the most interesting of nonfiction books. The text is also peppered with frankly adorable drawings (see the one on the cover) which really helped bring the information to life and added to the overall feel.

Overall, I am blown away by this book. I thought it would help with my PhD but I had no idea how much I would enjoy reading it. I have already bought a copy for a friend as a birthday present and I would recommend this to anyone with even a passing interest in the topic. It really does teach you more about how the world works and I feel like I will definitely read more about AI in the future because of it.

Overall Rating: 5/5

A fascinating overview of AI today. Easy to read and easy to understand, the book lays out just what is AI and perhaps importantly these days what isn't AI. Some of the examples and stories are fab and all torn from real-life and sometimes the headlines.

Beware of giraffes...

And also, what a fabulous title!

I read 39% of this, and I'm going to stop for now. It's clever and funny -- the illustrations are particularly enjoyable. But it's very science-heavy, and I've found myself have to reread sentences quite often, so it's been slow going. I'm clearly in my "it's the holidays and I just want something fun and disposable to read" mode.

I may come back to it in the new year, because stretching my brain isn't a bad thing -- and I highly recommend it if you ARE a sciencey person. But since I'm not, I'm going to give it a rest for now.

"For the foreseeable future, the danger will not be that AI is too smart but that it’s not smart enough."

This was a really fun read. It's not the overly optimistic tech utopia book that I was afraid it would be, but also it has a lot of optimism in it. I also really liked how thoroughly the problem of bias in tech and how that translates to AI was covered.

The material itself was fascinating and often hilarious, and if I have a complaint it's that a lot of the information is repeated in what seemed like needless detail.

Would definitely recommend.

This book is both educational and entertaining (AI-created recipe for Clam Frosting, etc.). I understand much more about artificial intelligence and computer programming now, and enjoyed it the whole time. My older students would be a good audience for this book, as well. I am now a fan of this author's blog, too!

I really enjoyed the chunk I got to read- very fun and informative! Unfortunately I didn't get to finish it all by the time it was archived. I'll definitely be picking up a copy down the line to finish it, though :)

Our AI overlords are coming and they're ... somewhat absurd.

Whether you believe the hand-wringing or the hype about artificial intelligence, this book is both reassuring. Janelle Shane manages to make topics like Markov Chains and unintentional memorization fascinating and funny. That's an exceptional feat of nonfiction writing.

I'd recommend this book to anyone even mildly interested in better understanding all of the buzz around Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

What a wild ride. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about AI or who is scared of the robots taking over. Clear, accessible and hilarious. This book is a must read!

Really engaging overview of AI, would be great for someone with no prior knowledge or exposure but also anyone who already has some experience of the topic. Great relatable examples and case studies throughout.

This book provides an excellent summary of AI and how it works. It's written in a funny and easy going style, with absolutely adorable sketches. Seriously, it's worth reading this for the AI doodles. They made me burst out laughing a few times.

Moreover, as someone with almost no knowledge about AI, I can say confidently that this book manages to be clear and understandable, even if you don't know anything. It gets ideas across without being too technical or using too much professional jargon. The author uses hilarious metaphors and real life examples to highlight important points and it definitely makes it all clear and interesting!

AI is such a buzzword nowadays so I enjoyed receiving more facts on the abilities of AI. Realizing that AI is best when solving narrow problems, that AI develops through mistakes, that AI struggles when seeing the unknown and also doesn't have a long term memory was all new to me.

I found the parts that talked about creativity and AI absolutely fascinating. It's very cool to think about how AI isn't bound by our human thoughts and therefore can go to places and connections we usually don't. Like I'd struggle to think about original cat names but an AI with enough input can just list thousands (and yeah, most won't be relevant but still).

I loved reading about AI shortcuts ("how do I gamble the best? Simply don't gamble"). Of course, it's concerning (like AI assuming there are no diseases because they are rare) but it's neat to think of how far this can go and how AI sees our world differently.

All in all, if you're up for a short, funny and informative book about AI, this is a good read for you.

What I'm taking With Me
• The knowledge of AI very much depends on its data bank. Which makes me feel like we need philosophers and other humanists involved when creating AI for real life applications, you've got to have someone that's thinking about social repercussions, about the ethical implications of representation.
• Companies often claim to use AI but in fact use people because it's cheaper. Combining AI with human help works well, such as advertising bots that redirect complicated questions to human workers.
• Man, I'm just here waiting for AI to come up in a conversation so I can talk about this book.

This book isn't for everyone, but it is for people looking at our own future with AI. So, I guess it is for everyone.
This book reads easily, complex computer science is presented at a layman's level without sounding condescending... all-around a well written book.
Full on anecdotes to make (what could be) a dry subject funny at times, there are plenty of real-world examples of AI effecting our lives today.
**I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An absolutely delightful book about Artificial Intelligence,how it works, where its shortcomings are, and what the realistic expectations are. I loves the way humor did such a fantastic way of illustrating the points.

One of the best books on AI I have read..

This is one the best book I've ever read about AI. it's well researched and humorous at the same time.
I loved the humour, the style of writing and the clarity of the explanations.
I will surely visit the author's blog and look forward to reading her further books.
Highly recommended
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Well, first of all, You Look Like A Thing and I Love You is a pick up line AI came up with and as far as pick up lines go it’s actually pretty good. And hilarious. Pretty good and hilarious is an apt way to describe this entire book, actually. Especially if, like me, you’re interested in AI and find autocorrect hysterical. Because, as it turns out, advancements in robotics, specifically robotic intelligence are nowhere near as…well, as advanced as you might think. Or hope. Which, personally, I find very sad, I ‘m always hoping and wishing for some artificially intelligent company, since the alternative leaves so much to be desired. But no, feet are being dragged and there are still so many limitations. To be fair, we can get AI to do narrow limited tasks pretty well. But independence of thinking on the Turing Test passing level is still but a fantasy, mostly. This book started off as a blog and I’m so glad it was turned into a book, because I don’t read blog, but a book with this title, description and cover is certain to grab my attention. And so chapter by chapter the author subjects AI to test after test to produce recipes, pick up lines and dessert flavors. The results are laugh out loud funny, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that much while reading a work of nonfiction. The robots are pretty adorable, much like the author’s accompanying drawings. And it isn’t just fun and games either, you do get a fair amount of information and science behind the AI development, which I found very interesting. Robots, much like us, can be quirky, random and have a penchant for shortcuts. They are just not quite ready yet for the complexity of tasks science fiction has them perform. That’s pretty much the gist of the book, it’s the sort of thing where you can read the final summarizing chapter and get it, but if you read the entire thing, you get the lovely drawings and the comedy, so it’s totally worth it. Plus it’s a very quick read. Thoroughly entertaining book, albeit sad on a personal level for someone who can’t wait for sci fi future with super intelligent robots. Even if they might take over the world. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

You Look Like a Thing and I Love You is a fun, accessible look at AI in its various applications. Whether you're tech savvy or not, this book can help you understand how AI works today, both showing its strengths and its limits.

Janelle Shane clearly explains the concepts behind AI and uses hilarious examples for each one. The humor and adorable illustrations in the book make it enjoyable and entertaining, and even if they're silly, they really helped me understand the concepts and retain that information.

What a fantastic book!

A fun, irreverent guide to the world of artificial intelligence from the woman behind the fantastic AI Weirdness blog. The book's central premise can be summed up in a sentence: artificial intelligence is more widespread than we think... but it's also pretty stupid. Hence the many funny, charming and even cute examples of machine-generated oddness throughout: recipes that call for 'liquid toe water'; a list of Halloween costumes that includes 'Panda Clam' and 'Failed Steampunk Spider' (I actually want to see that one); and the book's title, which was the result of an AI being tasked with devising chat-up lines. Shane's light-hearted style is very accessible – there are loads of laugh-out-loud anecdotes, but you'll learn quite a bit too.