Everyone is talking aboutChatGPTand using it.GPT-4 was released 1 month ago.Have you seen the pictures generated byMidjourney? Everything is developing at such a breakneck speed. There are currently two extremes in the media. On one side, people are extolling the virtues of AI and we might create a paradise where we do not need to do any drudgery. On the other side, there are numerous doomsday calls stating that we might be replaced by AI and we might unleash an irreversible disaster. One thing is for sure, the current AI development is going to change humanity's life forever. The question is, how do you see your future in it?
One way to envision the future is to imagine it.AI 2041is a book that is written based on this premise. The authors tried to imagine what will happen 20 years after they wrote the book. It is written byChen Qiufen, a Google engineer turned writer andLee Kai-Fu, an ex-executives of Apple, Microsoft and Google who happens to be a Carnegie Mellon University PhD graduate who researched machine learning and pattern recognition. It contains 10 stories set in different countries covering a wide range of topics such as the transformation of industries, the potential for AI to exacerbate existing inequalities, the role of AI in healthcare, the ethical considerations of AI-powered decision-making and much more. Each story will end with Lee Kai-Fu providing his insight into the probability of it coming true and the possible challenges preventing them from happening.
This book is written in an engaging and accessible way. One does not need to have any technical background to be able to understand the content since it is mainly written in a story form. In fact, I would argue that this makes complex concepts and technical details easily understandable for readers with varying levels of familiarity with AI. The authors strike a good balance between scientific explanations and storytelling, making the book accessible to everyone, especially students.
Regardless of which track you are on or which school you are in, this book will open your eyes to the ways of AI might affect our lives in the future. It will make you more aware of the technological tsunami that is imminent so that you can better prepare for it. Who knows, you might be inspired by one of the stories and start your own journey to change the world for the better. Come and discuss this book with me after you’ve finished any of the stories. I bet it will be a fun discussion.