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Arvind Narayanan
Photo via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Arvind Narayanan

Professor of Computer Science at Princeton; co-author of AI Snake Oil

Arvind Narayanan directs Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy and, with Sayash Kapoor, writes AI Snake Oil — a sustained, technically grounded effort to separate AI that works from AI that is being oversold, especially predictive systems used on people.

Newsletteraisnakeoil.com
#AI hype#predictive systems#AI ethics

Read them in their own words

Published elsewhere, not by me — so you get real context beyond the name and the title.

PodcastInterconnectsOctober 2024

Interviewing Arvind Narayanan on making sense of AI hype

A working method for telling a real capability from a press release, from the AI Snake Oil co-author.

Read or watch itAll interviews

Key arguments & positions

  • Distinguishes sharply between generative AI, which often works, and predictive AI used to forecast human outcomes, which he argues mostly does not.
  • Argues most AI hype is a failure of evaluation: claims are tested on benchmarks that do not resemble deployment.
  • Holds that both boosters and doomers overstate near-term capability, and criticizes each on the evidence rather than the vibe.

Accomplishments

  • Professor of computer science at Princeton and director of the Center for Information Technology Policy.
  • Co-author, with Sayash Kapoor, of AI Snake Oil (2024) and the newsletter of the same name.
  • Earlier work on web tracking and the de-anonymization of supposedly anonymous datasets.

Papers & key writings

Links

AI Snake OilPrinceton page

In the library

FreeNewsletterNewsletter
Technology & Ethics

AI Snake Oil newsletter

Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor's newsletter separating AI that works from AI that is oversold, with close readings of specific product and research claims.

From the site: Analyzing AI as transformative but normal technology, not superintelligence. Click to read AI as Normal Technology, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

Why I recommend it: The archive is free to read and the best regular antidote to launch-post hype. The book of the same name is a paid purchase — you do not need it to follow the newsletter.

#ai ethics#ai-ethics#ai-washing#free#newsletter#reading#research#technology-and-ethics
aisnakeoil.comAdded Sep 19, 20260 opens

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