1/4 These days most writers, including me, get asked: "Will you use AI to help you write?" My answer is: No. Not because I'm inherently against the idea, but because it undercuts the very reason I became a writer...

When I proposed WHY MACHINES LEARN in Oct 2020, to my then editor Stephen Morrow, @carpenter512.bsky.social, I was sure he'd say no to a book full of math & equations. But he saw something in the proposal that even I hadn't and said yes, and I'm grateful for that! Got to thank him today in person.

Last weekend a dear friend took out his copies of my books--the first time I saw them stacked together. It was a lovely reminder that it's worth pursuing what at first was a faint notion on the horizon. Never in a million years did I imagine I'd write four books when I started off as a journalist.

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Linear Algebra. If you really want to understand what’s happening in machine learning/AI, coming to grips with the basics of linear algebra is super important.

1/8

Don't know how other authors feel, but seeing the first physical copy of your book, after years of looking at Word files and PDFs...Seems surreal. It's as if someone else wrote it... Anyway, this advance copy arrived in the mail. One more month to pub date. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/677608...

At this year's Heidelberg Laureates Forum, I moderated a session on Generative AI, with a wonderful panel of experts: Sanjeev Arora, Bjorn Ommer (of Stable Diffusion fame), Sebastien Bubeck (of "Sparks of AGI") and Margo Seltzer. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdI8...