Ask the Author: Jacob Eliza
Answered Questions (7)
Jacob Eliza
First of all, I love this question. I ended up scrapping a lot of pop culture stuff that was just too niche - you know, 1970s French movie references, 1990s obscure hip hop, 2010s basketball. My editor also wanted me to delete "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" reference, but I am glad I stood my ground there - no AI book should do without that nugget.
Jacob Eliza
I actually believe so! I remember how the good teachers in school were always the ones that made me laugh. When you laugh, you relax and open up. When there may be a joke coming, you pay more attention. In my books, I try to use humor to make things relatable, and take the edge off complex topics.
Jacob Eliza
I was shocked to find out that AI is so good at talking humans out of conspiracy theories. I guess AI's endless patience and genuine impartialness is actually a great asset over other humans here.
Jacob Eliza
I have been giving presentations my whole career - to investors, to people I needed to influence - and I've always noticed that playfulness is a way to get people's attention, as long as you embed it in something serious and meaningful. The technical stuff, on the other hand... Is often a surefire way to make your audience fall asleep.
Jacob Eliza
Not to give spoilers, but this project got into gear when I remembered a random encounter I had in 1999, the year of the Matrix. A guy in an Amsterdam cafe told me that mankind would turn into "no-brainer zombies" once AI would get properly intelligent. A great premise for an exploration of modern AI, and the impact it has on our daily lives.
Jacob Eliza
I am usually looking for the pulse of the times we live in - and once I find that, I am eager to dissect it, and write about. So - A long time ago, I wrote books about the nightlife and the internet hype. After that, I felt out of touch with the zeitgeist for a while - I guess I was busy doing other stuff. But now, with AI, I feel like I get it again - the extreme excitement, the tantalizing promise and this sense of figuring out how to fly the plane while we're still building it.
Jacob Eliza
An AI model that will generate an entire best-selling novel in 5 minutes, as a hommage to Roald Dahl's eponymous "Great Automatic Grammatizator". In all seriousness, you should read that story, it provides uncanny insight into the GenAI hype - and it was written in 1954.
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