Surviving AI: The promise and peril of artificial intelligence

2015 | Computing & IT | Science & Mathematics

Artificial intelligence is our most powerful technology, and in the coming decades it will change everything in our lives. If we get it right it will make humans almost godlike. If we get it wrong... well, extinction is not the worst possible outcome.

“Surviving AI” is a concise, easy-to-read guide to what's coming, taking you through technological unemployment (the economic singularity) and the possible creation of a superintelligence (the technological singularity).

Here's what some of the leading thinkers in the field have to say about it:

A sober and easy-to-read review of the risks and opportunities that humanity will face from AI.

Jaan Tallinn – co-founder of Skype
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
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 of SENS Research Foundation; former AI researcher
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 of 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”
If you’re not thinking about AI, you’re not thinking. “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 has finally reached the mainstream. If you want to survive the next few decades, you cannot afford NOT to read Chace's book.

Prof. Dr. Hugo de Garis – former director of the Artificial Brain Lab, Xiamen University, China
“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 of Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
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.

David Wood – chair of 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 of Techstars

Calum Chace (Author)