How the tech titans and their thinking machines could wrap humanity
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper. - T.S.Eliot
The first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.
By not using any human data, Zero’s creators removed the constraints of human knowledge. Humans, as it turned out, would have held the system back. - in reference to the Alpha Zero
Systems tend to reflect the people and values who designed them.
The book is an exploration of AI from a theoretical and philosophical standpoint. The title of the book refers to the 9 major players in the AI playground. On the west are the Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, IBM and Apple (G-MAFIA). On the east, are Baidu. Alibaba and Tencent (BAT). Either the author forgot or doesnt consider Huawei a major player, either way, she missed the acronym BATH. Amy Webb, the author defines AI, traces its history, discusses the current AI projects of these 9 companies, talks about the various possible futures of AI and presents a guideline for future development of AI. All her predictions of the future are clubbed into 3 groups - the optimistic, the pragmatic and the catastrophic future.
The optimistic future is where the current Big Nine decide to introduce changes to ensure AI is used only for the benefit of all of us. Instead of silicon valley focusing on commercial needs and China focusing on global dominance. The pragmatic future is where the Big Nine make only minor improvements to their current practices. The catastrophic future is where the Big Nine ignores the warning signs and fails to actively plan for the future.
4/10
The book is a little too preachy and philosophical. I went in expecting more technicalities and on the ground view of AI at the major Tech firms. But the author was clearly not a technical person. So she expects simple things to go wrong like AI locking you out of your refrigerator or your home. This is a question that has been raised since HAL was shown in 2001: A Space Odessey and it is a possibility. But its only scary if machines become super intelligent and humans become super dumb. There are some other scary applications of AI such as a global monitoring sysem like the China’s Police Cloud, an AI powered social credit system. This one is potentially scary and I was expecting to read more about it but the author doesnt say much on it. Interestingly, in her optimistic scenario, its the western companies who prevail and in her catastrophic scenario, its the chinese companies who bring down humanity.
The book is well structured and the future predictions contain actual real life situations rather than abstract ideas. The history of AI was interesting to read about. She makes an interesting note that humans have envisioned AI even before computers were a thing. When Babbage had introduced the concept of a machine, Ada Lovelace had speculated a more powerful version of the engine that could be programmed. And all this was decades before the light bulb was invented. Humans are inherently creative and the average human IQ has been increasing by 3 points every decade. The possibilities for the future are truely endless. She wants everyone to listen to the warning signs to not step into a world where AI is the new ruler.