As I continue to explore the practical and philosophical impact of artificial intelligence, I’ve been reading 50 AI Ideas You Really Need to Know by Keith Mansfield. It’s a compact and thought-provoking guide that distills some of the most important AI concepts into 50 accessible essays.
From Turing’s foundational question—“Can machines think?”—to today’s fascination with generative AI and the speculation around superintelligence, Mansfield helped me understand how AI has evolved and where it might be heading.
Like another book on AI that I read recently, it highlights the gap between public perception and actual readiness, especially in regulated industries like ours.
In the pharma world, despite all the noise, AI’s impact is still limited. The technology requires vast, high-quality datasets that evolve over time. For real scientific application, we’re still at the beginning.
I often say that what we call AI today is often just faster algorithms. The deep learning models we hear so much about still rely on training data that doesn’t exist at the volume or consistency we’d need to safely automate decision-making.
I view AI as a facilitator, not a replacement. Especially in science, where ethical responsibility, data integrity, and human judgment remain critical. Perhaps when my granddaughter Maria is my age, AI will have matured enough to play a greater role. But not yet.
And that brings me to a cultural reflection. In Italian, the word for “success” is successo—a word rooted in the past. Something that’s already happened. I’ve always found that limiting. I don’t like to say I’ve “had success,” because I feel there’s still so much more to do. That same sentiment applies to AI: we’ve made progress, yes, but the real work is still ahead.
Mansfield’s book is a great companion for anyone who wants to engage with AI critically, without losing sight of the human element. Highly recommended.
