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The AI Pocketbook
Everything you need to know about AI to survive—and thrive—as an engineer.
If you’re worried about your tech career going obsolete in a world of super-powered AI, never fear. The AI Pocket Book crams everything engineers need to know about AI into one short volume you can fit into your pocket. You’ll build a better understanding of AI (and its limitations), learn how to use it more effectively, and future-proof your job against its advancement.
In The AI Pocket Book you’ll find no-nonsense advice
• Deciphering AI jargon (there’s lots of it!)
• Where AI fits within your field of engineering
• Why AI hallucinates—and what to do about it
• What to do when AI comes for your job
• The dark side of AI—copyright, snake oil, and replacing humans
• Balancing skepticism with unrealistic expectations
The AI Pocket Book gives you Emmanuel Maggiori’s unvarnished and opinionated take on where AI can be useful, and where it still kind of sucks. Whatever your tech field, this short-and-sweet guide delivers the facts and techniques you’ll need in the workplace of the present.
About the technology
You don’t have to know everything about AI to get a big payoff! Whether you’re looking to boost your coding speed, generate ideas for your next project, or just get a helping hand with your next Medium article, there’s an AI-powered tool ready to assist. This fit-in-your pocket guide tells you everything you need to surf the AI wave instead of drowning in it.
About the book
The AI Pocket Book takes a peek inside the AI black box and gives you just enough on key topics like transformers, hallucinations, and the modern ecosystem of AI models and tools. You’ll get handy techniques to select AI tools, learn when putting AI first is the smart move, and pick up some excellent tips for managing the inevitable, potentially expensive, screw ups.
What's inside
• Deciphering AI jargon (there’s lots of it!)
• Evaluating AI tools
• Why AI hallucinates and what to do about it
• How and when to use AI
About the reader
For engineers in all fields, from software to security.
About the author
Emmanuel Maggiori, PhD, is a software engineer and 10-year AI industry insider. He is also the author of Smart Until It’s Dumb and Siliconned.
Table of Contents
1 How AI works
2 Hallucinations
3 Selecting and evaluating AI tools
4 When to use (and not to use) AI
5 How AI will affect jobs and how to stay ahead
6 The fine print
A Catalog of generative AI tools
If you’re worried about your tech career going obsolete in a world of super-powered AI, never fear. The AI Pocket Book crams everything engineers need to know about AI into one short volume you can fit into your pocket. You’ll build a better understanding of AI (and its limitations), learn how to use it more effectively, and future-proof your job against its advancement.
In The AI Pocket Book you’ll find no-nonsense advice
• Deciphering AI jargon (there’s lots of it!)
• Where AI fits within your field of engineering
• Why AI hallucinates—and what to do about it
• What to do when AI comes for your job
• The dark side of AI—copyright, snake oil, and replacing humans
• Balancing skepticism with unrealistic expectations
The AI Pocket Book gives you Emmanuel Maggiori’s unvarnished and opinionated take on where AI can be useful, and where it still kind of sucks. Whatever your tech field, this short-and-sweet guide delivers the facts and techniques you’ll need in the workplace of the present.
About the technology
You don’t have to know everything about AI to get a big payoff! Whether you’re looking to boost your coding speed, generate ideas for your next project, or just get a helping hand with your next Medium article, there’s an AI-powered tool ready to assist. This fit-in-your pocket guide tells you everything you need to surf the AI wave instead of drowning in it.
About the book
The AI Pocket Book takes a peek inside the AI black box and gives you just enough on key topics like transformers, hallucinations, and the modern ecosystem of AI models and tools. You’ll get handy techniques to select AI tools, learn when putting AI first is the smart move, and pick up some excellent tips for managing the inevitable, potentially expensive, screw ups.
What's inside
• Deciphering AI jargon (there’s lots of it!)
• Evaluating AI tools
• Why AI hallucinates and what to do about it
• How and when to use AI
About the reader
For engineers in all fields, from software to security.
About the author
Emmanuel Maggiori, PhD, is a software engineer and 10-year AI industry insider. He is also the author of Smart Until It’s Dumb and Siliconned.
Table of Contents
1 How AI works
2 Hallucinations
3 Selecting and evaluating AI tools
4 When to use (and not to use) AI
5 How AI will affect jobs and how to stay ahead
6 The fine print
A Catalog of generative AI tools
- GenresArtificial Intelligence
200 pages, Paperback
Published July 22, 2025
4 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 14, 2025
I've read this book recently by mr. Maggiori, received as courtesy from Manning Publishing and these are my impressions on the book:
Strengths:
* Honors its name: to be able to concentrate such a vast topic as artificial intelligence in a pocket volume, is not a small feat, and Maggiori has succeeded at keeping the theme succinct enough so the reader gets a panoramic overview of the ongoing tech and its applications, as well as when (not) to use it.
* Very easy to read: the author put in the strictly necessary amount of technicality, but the writing style is like having a friend next to you talking about the topic.
* There are plenty of references: for curious readers (like me), there are many external references should they want to go deeper into certain topics (s).
Weaknesses
* sometimes the author assumes the reader is already practitioner and will be familiar with some key concepts (e.g. loss function), but other times, he takes the time to explain concepts (e.g,, precision, accuracy and recall) that (to my taste) are maybe at the same level as others he assumed are evident in the domain. It's hard to know where the line is drawn.
* There's a strong focus on addressing the use and application of Generative AI (and LLMs). Granted this is a subject which is all the rage nowadays in the AI landscape (a *hammer looking for nails* everywhere, as the author points out), yet there are (I think) other topics which could have been addressed a little deeper like collaboration paradigms with humans-in-the-loop, environmental impact of AI (training and use), legal and ethical implications when applying (indiscriminately) these technologies.
Overall, the chapter I was mostly interested in reading (maybe due to my current worries as a worker) was number five: How AI will affect jobs and how to stay ahead. While I partially share the (long-term) optimism of the author, I see with certain skepticism the current state of affairs, and hope future generations will reap the benefits of this huge innovation that wave artificial intelligence at large is unleashing. Time will tell whether we as a society mold and make ours the productivity gains and progress promised.
I've left 4 stars, but to sound consistent, I´d have left 3.5 for the weaknesses I mentioned above.
Strengths:
* Honors its name: to be able to concentrate such a vast topic as artificial intelligence in a pocket volume, is not a small feat, and Maggiori has succeeded at keeping the theme succinct enough so the reader gets a panoramic overview of the ongoing tech and its applications, as well as when (not) to use it.
* Very easy to read: the author put in the strictly necessary amount of technicality, but the writing style is like having a friend next to you talking about the topic.
* There are plenty of references: for curious readers (like me), there are many external references should they want to go deeper into certain topics (s).
Weaknesses
* sometimes the author assumes the reader is already practitioner and will be familiar with some key concepts (e.g. loss function), but other times, he takes the time to explain concepts (e.g,, precision, accuracy and recall) that (to my taste) are maybe at the same level as others he assumed are evident in the domain. It's hard to know where the line is drawn.
* There's a strong focus on addressing the use and application of Generative AI (and LLMs). Granted this is a subject which is all the rage nowadays in the AI landscape (a *hammer looking for nails* everywhere, as the author points out), yet there are (I think) other topics which could have been addressed a little deeper like collaboration paradigms with humans-in-the-loop, environmental impact of AI (training and use), legal and ethical implications when applying (indiscriminately) these technologies.
Overall, the chapter I was mostly interested in reading (maybe due to my current worries as a worker) was number five: How AI will affect jobs and how to stay ahead. While I partially share the (long-term) optimism of the author, I see with certain skepticism the current state of affairs, and hope future generations will reap the benefits of this huge innovation that wave artificial intelligence at large is unleashing. Time will tell whether we as a society mold and make ours the productivity gains and progress promised.
I've left 4 stars, but to sound consistent, I´d have left 3.5 for the weaknesses I mentioned above.
November 15, 2025
If you are a newbie wondering what GenAI is all about, how ChatGPTs and Gemini's work under the hood, how DallE generates images, this is the book for you. While many are overwhelmed by the Capabilities of LLMs and are anxiety ridden listening to some experts in the field (Mostly in their 70s) who behave like Doomsday Prophets, this book clears the wheat from the chaff. This is a good introduction to how LLMs work, how CNNs and RNNs work. The book introduces us to the revolutionary epochs in AI revolution, by talking about Deep Learning and the famous paper "Attention is all you need" that introduced the transformer architecture that is used ubiquitously now in LLMS.
This book also deals with some of the shortcomings of LLMs like hallucinations, why self driving cars are still a distant dream. It also gives a list of now popular tools.
The author gives his take on how to future proof your career against AI with some very valuable suggestions.
In the end, the book takes a philosophical turn by comparing Biological Intelligence with AI. It was a pleasure reading this book and highly enlightening.
This book also deals with some of the shortcomings of LLMs like hallucinations, why self driving cars are still a distant dream. It also gives a list of now popular tools.
The author gives his take on how to future proof your career against AI with some very valuable suggestions.
In the end, the book takes a philosophical turn by comparing Biological Intelligence with AI. It was a pleasure reading this book and highly enlightening.
July 31, 2025
The AI Pocket Book is a clear, practical, and no-nonsense guide to understanding how AI works—and how it doesn’t. It explains LLMs, hallucinations, embeddings, and real-world use cases in a way that is both easy to follow and insightful.
Highly recommend for anyone looking to explore the current AI landscape without getting lost in jargon.
Highly recommend for anyone looking to explore the current AI landscape without getting lost in jargon.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews