We’re thrilled to announce the sale of World English rights to ARTIFICIAL HYPE: Fear, Profit, and the Illusion of Intelligence by Joseph Wilson to Carli Hansen at University of Toronto Press for publication under its trade imprint Aevo in Spring 2025!
ARTIFICIAL HYPE debunks the myths of so-called artificial intelligence and its capabilities. Most explanations of real-world AI software are highly technical and, perhaps purposefully, confusing. Understanding not only how AI software works, but also how Silicon Valley markets it, is now essential to navigating modern life.
As a linguistic anthropologist studying the computer scientists who develop AI, Joseph Wilson is uniquely placed to interrogate and interpret this final frontier. With accessible definitions and engaging anecdotes, ARTIFICIAL HYPE lifts the curtain on the reality of computer intelligence, and reveals the different mechanisms by which its capabilities are exaggerated and obfuscated by the very same engineers and computer scientists who stand to profit from its implementation.
Joseph Wilson is a PhD Candidate in Linguistic & Semiotic Anthropology at the University of Toronto. His research takes place in artificial intelligence labs, at conferences, and through interviews with machine learning engineers, computer scientists, computational linguists, investors, and policy-makers.
He has co-written or edited three books: Science Perspective 9 (Nelson Education, 2009); Amateur-Professional Partnerships in Astronomy (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, 2000); and Toronto: The Essential Guide to the Best of the City (NOW Magazine, 2008), and has written hundreds of articles for various publications including The Toronto Star, Globe & Mail, American Scientist, Anthropology News, Betakit, SAPIENS, Babel, and Spacing.
Joseph is represented by Brenna English-Loeb.
Congratulations Joseph!