Manning launches Evaluation and Alignment book

Hot take: this is less a book about metrics and more a reminder that most real ML failures are specification failures.

• –It treats evaluation as a design choice, not an afterthought, which is exactly how production teams should think about LLMs.
• –The chapter lineup mirrors the field’s evolution: lexical scoring, semantic similarity, judgment-based evaluation, then alignment loops.
• –The MEAP format makes it a living resource rather than a finished textbook, which suits a fast-moving topic like LLM evaluation.
• –The practitioner focus makes it useful for teams trying to align helpfulness, safety, and consistency around a shared evaluation language.