“Surviving AI”, a non-fiction review of the promise and peril of artificial intelligence, will be published later this summer. Designer Rachel Lawston has produced a terrific cover (biased? me?), and I’m very grateful to all the illustrious (and busy) people below who gave their time to review it:
A sober and easy-to-read review of the risks and opportunities that humanity will face from AI.
Jaan Tallinn, co-founder Skype; co-founder CSER and FLI
Understanding AI – its promise and its dangers – is emerging as one of the great challenges of coming decades and this is an invaluable guide to anyone who’s interested, confused, excited or scared.
David Shukman, BBC Science Editor
As artificial intelligence drives the pace of automation ever faster, it is timely that we consider in detail how it might eventually make an even more profound change to our lives – how truly general AI might vastly exceed our capabilities in all areas of endeavour. The opportunities and challenges of this scenario are daunting for humanity to contemplate, let alone to manage in our best interests.
We have recently seen a surge in the volume of scholarly analysis of this topic; Chace impressively augments that with this high-quality, more general-audience discussion.
Aubrey de Grey – CSO, SENS Research Foundation, and former AI researcher
Calum Chace provides a clear, simple, stimulating summary of the key positions and ideas regarding the future of Artificial General Intelligence and its potential risks. For the newcomer who’s after a non-technical, even-handed intro to the various perspectives being bandied about regarding these very controversial issues, Chace’s book provides a great starting-point into the literature.
It’s rare to see a book about the potential End of the World that is fun to read without descending into sensationalism or crass oversimplification.
Ben Goertzel – Chairman, Novamente LLC
Calum Chace is a prescient messenger of the risks and rewards of artificial intelligence. In “Surviving AI” he has identified the most essential issues and developed them with insight and wit – so that the very framing of the questions aids our search for answers.
Chace’s sensible balance between AI’s promise and peril makes “Surviving AI” an excellent primer for anyone interested in what’s happening, how we got here, and where we are headed.
Kenneth Cukier, co-author of “Big Data: A Revolution that Transforms How We Work, Live and Think”
If you’re not thinking about AI, you’re not thinking. Every business must evaluate the disruptive potential of today’s AI capabilities; every policy maker should be planning for the combination of high productivity and radical disruption of employment; and every person should be aware that we’re pelting down a foggy road toward powerful and pervasive technologies.
“Surviving AI” combines an essential grounding in the state of the art with a survey of scenarios that will be discussed with equal vigor at cocktail parties and academic colloquia.
Chris Meyer, Author of Blur, It’s Alive, and Standing on the Sun.
The appearance of Calum Chace’s book is of some considerable personal satisfaction to me, because it signifies the fact that the level of social awareness of the rise of massively intelligent machines (that I call artilects – artificial intellects) has finally reached the “third phase”, which I call “mainstream”. (Phase zero = no awareness, phase one = intellectuals crying in the wilderness, phase two = action groups, phase three = mainstream, phase four = politics).
As one of the tiny handful of people in the 80s in phase one, it has been a lonely business, so with Chace’s book explaining what I call “the species dominance debate” to a mass audience, it is clear that humanity is now well into phase three. The down-to-earth clarity of Chace’s style will help take humanity into what could be a very violent, “Transcendence” movie-like, real-life, phase four.
If you want to survive this coming fourth phase in the next few decades and prepare for it, you cannot afford NOT to read Chace’s book.
Prof. Dr. Hugo de Garis, author of “The Artilect War”, former director of the Artificial Brain Lab, Xiamen University, China
Advances in AI are set to affect progress in all other areas in the coming decades. If this momentum leads to the achievement of strong AI within the century, then in the words of one field leader it would be “the biggest event in human history”. Now is therefore a perfect time for the thoughtful discussion of challenges and opportunities that Chace provides.
“Surviving AI” is an exceptionally clear, well-researched and balanced introduction to a complex and controversial topic, and is a compelling read to boot.
Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Executive Director, Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
“Surviving AI” is well written, presenting pretty much all the basic facts and information without excessive speculation.
Randal Koene, founder, carboncopies.org
“Surviving AI” is an extremely clear, even-handed and up-to-date introduction to the debate on artificial intelligence and what it will mean for the future of humanity.
Dan Goldman, Lecturer, Intelligent Systems and Networks Group, Imperial College
A good overview of a lot of the issues surrounding potentially super-powered AI.
Dr Stuart Armstrong, Future of Humanity Institute
In “Surviving AI”, Calum Chace provides a marvellously accessible guide to the swirls of controversy that surround discussion of what is likely to be the single most important event in human history – the emergence of artificial superintelligence.
Throughout, “Surviving AI” remains clear and jargon-free, enabling newcomers to the subject to understand why many of today’s most prominent thinkers have felt compelled to speak out publicly about it.
David Wood – Chair, London Futurists
Artificial intelligence is the most important technology of our era. Technological unemployment could force us to adopt an entirely new economic structure, and the creation of superintelligence would be the biggest event in human history. “Surviving AI” is a first-class introduction to all of this.
Brad Feld, co-founder, Techstars
The promises and perils of machine superintelligence are much debated nowadays. But between the complex and sometimes esoteric writings of AI theorists and academics like Nick Bostrom, and the popular-press prognostications of Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking, there is something of a gap. Calum Chace’s Surviving AI bridges that gap perfectly. It provides a compact yet rigorous guide to all the major arguments and issues in the field. An excellent resource for those who are new to this topic.
John Danaher, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET)
Calum Chace strikes a note of clarity and balance in the important and often divisive dialogue around the benefits and potential dangers of artificial intelligence. It’s a debate we need to have, and Calum is an accessible and helpful guide.
Ben Medlock – cofounder, Swiftkey