Here’s the conclusion of my LLRX.com review of AI Snake Oil. In case you couldn’t tell, I liked it:

The Bottom Line

From predicting case outcomes to drafting legal documents, AI promises abound. But as Narayanan and Kapoor compellingly argue, separating AI fact from fiction is now a critical skill for professionals.

AI Snake Oil has a few warts. The authors will never be candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is repetitive and seems too negative at times.

Despite its stylistic shortcomings, AI Snake Oil is a crucial guide for navigating the complex and often misleading landscape of artificial intelligence. It is essential reading for lawyers and policymakers struggling to make sense of how to deal with AI. It belongs on the shortlist with Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI and Richard Susskind’s How to Think About AI: A Guide for the Perplexed.

Purchase Info:

Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapor, AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference (Princeton University Press, Princeton, and Oxford, September 2024). Available from Princeton University Press, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Google Play (Ebook) and Audible (audio recording).