Overview

What happens to human reading when AI bots can do it for us? Explosive developments in artificial intelligence have awed everyday users with the technology's ability to draw, do computer coding, and especially to write. Those AI-generated essays and poems, legal briefs and responses to requests for information are all visible evidence of large language models at work. What we don't see is the critical prior step: before it can write, AI needs to read. While AI's written outcomes are remarkably similar to what a diligent student, lawyer, or researcher might produce, AI doesn't read the way that humans do. Now that AI is proving an adept reader, what happens to our own reading skills and motivations—especially at a time when both voluntary and school reading are increasingly on the decline? We have learned that when we let chatbots write for us, there are pros and cons to handing over our virtual pens. It's critical that we also think through the consequences of relinquishing reading—a deeply human activity—to bots. What do we stand to gain and lose when we let AI read for us? Tracing the intersecting trajectories of AI and reading, Reader Bot tackles this vital question, revealing why we must be thoughtful about how we welcome AI-as-reader into our lives.

Full Product Details

9781503643949

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Reviews

""Reader Bot is an excellent blend of judicious research reporting and accessible exposition, on a subject that affects everyone. If you want an up-to-date review of the impact AI is going to have on the way we read and teach children to read, this is the place to start."" --David Crystal, author of A Date with Language ""Reader Bot is both thoughtful and topical, forward-thinking and grounded in present controversies over the use of AI to 'read' text. It's also intensely practical. Be sure to consult this book before you ask a chatbot to summarize an email, condense an article, or review a literature--you'll be glad you did!"" --Frank Pasquale, author of The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information ""AI can now read for us--but at what cost? Arriving at a time when AI's capabilities to scan, interpret, and summarize human-authored texts grow ever more sophisticated, Baron's book poses urgent questions about what it means to be literate in a digital world."" --Matthew Rubery, author of Reader's Block: A History of Reading Differences

Author Information

Naomi S. Baron is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at American University. Her most recent books include How We Read Now: Strategic Choices for Print, Screen, and Audio (2021) and Who Wrote This? How AI and the Lure of Efficiency Threaten Human Writing (Stanford, 2023).

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