Skeptic March 2020

R E V I E W S

5 8 S K E P T I C M A G A Z I N E volume 25 number 1 2020

for the subject, which is more thoroughly
discussed even in Wikipedia—not to
mention the hundreds of thousands of
websites and even entire books.
In Part III, Learning to Play,

Mitchell resumes both her enthusiasm

and her mastery. Although this section

is again rather short, her discussion of

how robotic dogs have learned how to

play soccer and computer programs

have learned to play Atari, Chess, and

Go is clear and informative. And, she’s

appropriately skeptical of the credulous

enthusiasm fostered by such successes:

“It may sound strange to say, but...the

Figure 3: TV snow patterns and abstract geometric patterns identified by AI as specific objects.