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Human Compatible

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Creating superior intelligence would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, according to the world's pre-eminent AI expert, it could also be the last.

In this groundbreaking book on the biggest question facing humanity, Stuart Russell explains why he has come to consider his own discipline an existential threat to his own species, and lays out how we can change course before it's too late. There is no one better placed to assess the promise and perils of the dominant technology of the future than Russell, who has spent decades at the forefront of AI research. Through brilliant analogies and crisp, lucid prose, he explains how AI actually works, how it has an enormous capacity to improve our lives - but why we must ensure that we never lose control of machines more powerful than we are. Here Russell shows how we can avert the worst threats by reshaping the foundations of AI to guarantee that machines pursue our objectives, not theirs.

Profound, urgent and visionary, Human Compatible is the one book everyone needs to read to understand a future that is coming sooner than we think.

Critics Review

Surely the most important book on AI this year.
The Guardian, Book of the Day
A brilliantly clear and fascinating exposition of the history of computing thus far, and how very difficult true AI will be to build.
The Spectator
Fascinating and significant.
The Sunday Times
Worth reading Human Compatible by Stuart Russell (he's great!) about future AI risks and solutions.
Twitter
A thought-provoking and highly readable account of the past, present and future of AI . . . Russell deploys a bracing intellectual rigour . . . but a laconic style and dry humour keep his book accessible to the lay reader.
The Financial Times
It's asking a lot of a book about the potential end of civilisation to be strewn with humour and wry asides, but this is what Russell manages . . . it's worth sticking with, for the sake of the species.
The Guardian
An excellent, nuanced history.
The Telegraph, Best New Science Books for Christmas
Russell is an assiduous and conscientious scholar ... [he] provides a wealth of information. This is one of those intellectual voyages where both the journey and the destination matter.
The Literary Review
This is the most important book I have read in quite some time. It lucidly explains how the coming age of artificial super-intelligence threatens human control. Crucially, it also introduces a novel solution and a reason for hope.
Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize and author of 'Thinking, Fast and Slow'
Of the many books published this year on artificial intelligence, this is probably the best. Stimulating and scary stuff.
The Financial Times
Author Stuart Russell
Narrator Raphael Corkhill
Duration 11 hours and 38 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9780141991696
Format Audiobook
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Genre Artificial intelligence, Control, privacy and safety in society, Impact of science and technology on society, Social forecasting, future studies
Availability AU, GB, IE

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