No Adult Left Behind Review: A No-Nonsense Primer on AI

No Adult Left Behind by George Pillari is a nonfiction book about AI and how deeply it's already woven into daily life. I received it as a review copy from the author himself

Going in, I half-expected another AI hype book. At least, I found something like a no-nonsense primer on AI. The book can actually be a useful introductory resource for anyone who wants to get a hang of using AI chatbots.

My Rating:

❤️❤️❤️❤️🤍

A no-nonsense primer on AI.

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What the Book is About

No Adult Left Behind is kind of a user guide to AI chatbots, with different use cases stacked one after another. Pillari opens with an anecdote about AI helping him troubleshoot a broken stereo. He just photographed the back panel and asked ChatGPT what to do, instead of fumbling with cables for an hour.

From there, the book moves through prompting, career stuff, stocks and some serious territory... AI in the military, medicine and aviation, among others. His stance more or less is: figure out how to use AI tools in some way every day, because in the next few years, everybody else will.

What Works

The book has plenty of examples throughout... analysing problems, giving solutions, that sort of thing. And among it throughout were warnings against senseless AI usage. So it didn't really sound like a LinkedIn influencer shouting "AI this, AI that."

George suggested taking everything with a pinch of salt, weighing the upside against the risk. And that’s something I was hoping from a book about AI; not blind preaching as if these AI tools can never go wrong.

The writing is accessible too. The sentences are short, and the language never gets in the way of what Pillari is trying to say. So, the book is approachable for most adults even if someone isn’t particularly techie.

What Falls Short

There's little to complain about on the substance, but the writing itself was a bit bland. It just drags. Same repetitive sentence structures over and over. I don't know how to phrase it, exactly... the sentences were short, the writing was accessible, but I guess I'd say it traded simplicity for variety.

It wasn't bad overall. Not technically. It was just that it got boring after a while, just monotonous... and it was hard to not notice the repetitions. After about 50% of the book, I found myself mostly skimming through the pages more than reading.

Who Should Read It

No Adult Left Behind is an easy recommend for professionals who can't afford to fall behind on AI. And it’s for anyone who doesn't quite know how to enter the world of AI chatbots yet. If you already live inside chatbots every day, though, you probably won't find anything new here

Final Thoughts

At its core, No Adult Left Behind is a book about adapting to an AI world, while trusting your own judgment alongside. George has given a good primer that nudges you towards trying AI, but also suggests keeping caution. He isn't trying to sell a miracle, just a habit. And even though it wasn't a page-turner for me, it was definitely a good book about day-to-day AI usage.

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