# The Alchemy of AI ## Background The student of AI needs the following: - A healthy dose of skepticism [4]. - Knowledge of the history and reasons that led to the _AI Winter_. - Be aware of the hype, misinformation, and alchemy that is common in the field of AI. The two guiding principles of AI engineering are: 1. Occam's Razor 2. No Free Lunch Theorem ## The AI Hype L. Chu, [GenAI’s products: Move fast and fail](https://pub.towardsai.net/genais-products-move-fast-and-fail-795697674039), Towards AI, Dec. 3, 2023. P. Raco, [Bursting the AI Hype Bubble Once and for All](https://towardsdatascience.com/bursting-the-ai-hype-bubble-once-and-for-all-581a994fe762), Towards Data Science, Oct. 11, 2024. M. Asay, [AI’s moment of disillusionment](https://www.infoworld.com/article/3715682/ais-moment-of-disillusionment.html), Infoworld, July 8, 2024. S. Collins, [Beyond the Hype: The $40B GenAI Mistake and the “Learning Gap” 95% of Companies Don’t See](https://pub.towardsai.net/beyond-the-hype-the-40b-genai-mistake-and-the-learning-gap-95-of-companies-dont-see-aacc3bf446b0), Towards AI, Oct. 22, 2025. ## AI Failures in the News S. Estrada, [MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing](https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/), Fortune, Aug. 18, 2025. T. Claburn, [AI agents? Yes, let's automate all sorts of things that don't actually need it](https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/27/ai_agents_automate_argument/), The Register, Jan. 27, 2025. M. Oitzman, [OpenAI abandons robotics research](https://www.therobotreport.com/openai-abandons-robotics-research/), The Robot Report, July 20, 2021. J. Vincent, [Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI to pursue holy grail of artificial intelligence](https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/22/20703578/microsoft-openai-investment-partnership-1-billion-azure-artificial-general-intelligence-agi), The Verge, July 22, 2019. Editorial, [The $500mm+ Debacle at Zillow Offers – What Went Wrong with the AI Models?](https://insideainews.com/2021/12/13/the-500mm-debacle-at-zillow-offers-what-went-wrong-with-the-ai-models/), Inside AI News, Dec. 13, 2021. B. Mole, [Humana also using AI tool with 90% error rate to deny care, lawsuit claims](https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/12/humana-also-using-ai-tool-with-90-error-rate-to-deny-care-lawsuit-claims/), ars Technica, Dec. 13, 2023. P. Hearn, [Uber was just hit with a massive $320 million fine. Here’s why](https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/uber-just-hit-with-massive-320-million-dollar-fine-heres-why/), digitaltrends, Aug. 26, 2024 ## Ethical Issues from AI F. S. Grodzinsky, M. J. Wolf, and K. W. Miller, "[Ethical Issues From Emerging AI Applications: Harms Are Happening](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10417760)," Computer, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 44-52, Feb. 2024, doi: 10.1109/MC.2023.3332850. M. L. Cummings, "[What Self-Driving Tells Us About AI Risks](https://spectrum.ieee.org/self-driving-cars-2662494269)," IEEE Spectrum, vol. 60, no. 10, pp. 30-35, October 2023, doi: 10.1109/MSPEC.2023.10271347. J. B. Michael and T. C. Wingfield, "[Defensive AI: The Future Is Yesterday](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9524660)," Computer, vol. 54, no. 9, pp. 90-96, Sept. 2021, doi: 10.1109/MC.2021.3092480. ## Ethics Crisis in AI Research J. F. DeFranco and J. Voas, "[Reproducibility, Fabrication, and Falsification](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9622314)," Computer, vol. 54, no. 12, pp. 24-26, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.1109/MC.2021.3055926. M. Parashar, M. A. Heroux,and V. Stodden, "[Research Reproducibility](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9847295)," Computer, vol. 55, no. 8, pp. 16-18, Aug. 2022, doi: 10.1109/MC.2022.3176988. ---------- T. Hoefler, "[Benchmarking Data Science: 12 Ways to Lie With Statistics and Performance on Parallel Computers](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9847318)," Computer, vol. 55, no. 8, pp. 49-56, Aug. 2022, doi: 10.1109/MC.2022.3152681. D. Kreps and M. d. Roche, "[The International Federation for Information Processing Code of Ethics in Context](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10417801)," Computer, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 24-32, Feb. 2024, doi: 10.1109/MC.2023.3327628. ---------- R. Mariani et al., "[Trustworthy AI — Part I](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10042078)," Computer, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 14-18, Feb. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MC.2022.3227683. R. Mariani et al., "[Trustworthy AI — Part II](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10109318)," Computer, vol. 56, no. 5, pp. 13-16, May 2023, doi: 10.1109/MC.2023.3253980. R. Mariani et al., "[Trustworthy AI — Part III](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10461705)," Computer, vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 22-24, March 2024, doi: 10.1109/MC.2024.3359766. [Bogus research is undermining good science, slowing lifesaving research](https://theconversation.com/bogus-scientific-papers-are-enriching-fraudsters-and-slowing-lifesaving-medical-research-248291) ## References [1]: I. Sommerville, Software Engineering 10th ed., Pearson, ISBN: 978-0133943030, 2015. [2]: P. Bourque and R. E. Fairley, [Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK)](https://www.computer.org/education/bodies-of-knowledge/software-engineering), v. 3, IEEE, 2014. [3]: E. Alpaydin, Introduction to Machine Learning, 4th ed., MIT Press, ISBN: 9780262358064, 2020. [4]: S. Russell and P. Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, ISBN: 0-13-461099-7, 2021. [5]: B. M. Nedgu, “Why 85% of AI projects fail,” Towards Data Science Nov. 11, 2020. [6]: S. Reisner, “Why most AI implementations fail and what enterprises can do to beat the odds,” Venture Beat, June 28, 2021. [7]: J. F. DeFranco and J. Voas, “Reproducibility, Fabrication, and Falsification,” Computer, vol. 54 no. 12, 2021. [8]: M. Parashar, M. A. Heroux,and V. Stodden, "Research Reproducibility," Computer, vol. 55, no. 8, pp. 16-18, Aug. 2022, doi: 10.1109/MC.2022.3176988. [9]: T. Shin, “4 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Machine Learning,” Towards Data Science, Oct. 5, 2021.