This Guardian article offers an insightful review of a new book titled "The AI Con: How To Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want" by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna.

One passage stood out:

>>
[...]Bender and Hanna are right to insist that each [AI] case should be scrutinised for its utility, the biases it might smuggle in, and its propensity to destroy jobs that depend on human judgment. They cite a famous old rule from IBM: “A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.” But that is precisely why some in power want to hand decision‑making capacity to computers: it promises a sunlit utopia of profit without blame.
>>

They are exactly right. Software is not a legal entity, and it cannot be held accountable for decisions, acts, or omissions - a strong argument for keeping humans in the loop, if only to ensure responsibility can be assigned where it belongs.

That’s not just a philosophical stance - it’s a governance imperative. As AI systems become more embedded in decisions across healthcare, justice, finance, and employment, the temptation to offload responsibility onto “the algorithm” grows. But delegation without accountability is abdication.

The real con isn’t just the overhype of AI capabilities - it’s the illusion that responsibility can be outsourced. If we want a future shaped by human values, humans must remain visibly and legally accountable in every loop.

https://lnkd.in/g_VEqrRU