Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence, reviewed

We look at this book by Minter Dial which is 70% different from the first version that came out in 2018.

Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence, reviewed

This book is accessible and readable. Minter returns to a familiar topic, albeit half a decade later, which, given these particular five years, has certainly been an eventful time. Things have moved fast in certain areas, so this has been probably enough time to revisit some of these topics, and it makes sense that so much of it has been updated and revised. Taking an AI out for dinner with his wife was an entertaining but also informative exercise.

Quite quickly he begins to suspect, like a lot of us, that the responses are not completely human-free. AI has certainly got better, and to some degree you can argue it might pass the Turing Test to some degree. Except that this illustrates that the Turing test might now no longer be fit for purpose. Minter discusses the need for ethical AI and empathy in AI also, though how you would achieve this is a more challenging question. To return to taking his AI for dinner, this does enable him to discuss some interesting and thought provoking questions via an engaging hook.

Actions like this help to make the book an interesting read and enables it to stand on its own two feet, a different and distinct beast to its successor. Transcripts of conversations were useful and interesting to read, but as the original screenshots were readable already it did seem redundant at times to then also have then transcribed too. This to one side the book is a useful and thought provoking read, check it out.

Minter what is different about this version?

The rewrite started before ChatGPT with a sense that much more attention (and empathy) was needed to figure out the future of work (post Covid). How to manage hybrid work etc as a leader? Secondly, I read much about the rise in mental health issues (depression, suicides) and the apparent lack of therapists in so many countries… meaning that the need for AI therapists was evermore evident. But how were we going to achieve this? Finally, the rise of generative AI and an ability to play with GPT quickly made it obvious about the step change that’s happening … Voila.

More about the book

Minter Dial

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