AI 2041 - Ten Visions for Our Future

"In a ... blend of science and imagination, the former president of Google China and a leading writer of speculative fiction join forces to answer an urgent question: how will artificial intelligence change our world over the next twenty years? ... Many people know little about it apart from visions of dystopian robots or flying cars. Though the term has been around for half a century, it is only now, Kai-Fu Lee argues, that AI is poised to upend our society, just as the arrival of technologies like electricity and smart phones did before it"--

List of contents

Introduction by Kai-Fu Lee: The Real Story of AI

Introduction by Chen Qiufan: How We Can Learn to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Future with Imagination

One: The Golden Elephant
• Analysis: Deep learning, big data, internet/finance applications, AI externalities

Two: The Gods Behind the Masks
• Analysis: Computer vision, convolutional neural networks, deepfakes, generative adversarial networks (GANs), biometrics, AI security

Three: Twin Sparrows
• Analysis: Natural language processing, self-supervised training, GPT-3, AGI and consciousness, AI education

Four: Contactless Love
• Analysis: AI healthcare, AlphaFold, robotic applications, COVID automation accelation

Five: My Haunting Idol
• Analysis: Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), brain-computer interface (BCI), ethical and societal issues

Six: The Holy Driver
• Analysis: Autonomous vehicles, full autonomy and smart cities, ethical and social issues

Seven: Quantum Genocide
• Analysis: Quantum computers, bitcoin security, autonomous weapons and existential threat

Eight: The Job Savior
• Analysis: AI job displacement, universal basic income (UBI), what AI cannot do, 3RS as a solution to displacement

Nine: Isle of Happiness
• Analysis: AI and happiness, general data protection regulation (GDPR), personal data, privacy computing using federated learning and trusted execution environment (TEE)

Ten: Dreaming of Plenitude
• Analysis: Plenitude, new economic models, the future of money, singularity

Acknowledgments

Index

About the author

Kai-Fu Lee is the CEO of Sinovation Ventures and New York Times bestselling author of AI Superpowers. Lee was formerly the president of Google China and a senior executive at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple. Co-chair of the Artificial Intelligence Council at the World Economic Forum, he has a bachelor’s degree from Columbia and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon. Lee’s numerous honors include being named to the Time 100 and Wired 25 Icons lists. He is based in Beijing.

Chen Qiufan (aka Stanley Chan) is an award-winning author, translator, creative producer, and curator. He is the president of the World Chinese Science Fiction Association. His works include Waste Tide, Future Disease, and The Algorithms for Life. The founder of Thema Mundi, a content development studio, he lives in Beijing and Shanghai.

Summary

How will AI change our world within twenty years? A pioneering technologist and acclaimed writer team up for a “dazzling” (The New York Times) look at the future that “brims with intriguing insights” (Financial Times)

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Financial Times
 
Long before the advent of ChatGPT, Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan understood the enormous potential of artificial intelligence to transform our daily lives. But even as the world wakes up to the power of AI, many of us still fail to grasp the big picture. Chatbots and large language models are only the beginning.
 
In this “inspired collaboration” (The Wall Street Journal), Lee and Chen join forces to imagine our world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. In ten gripping, globe-spanning short stories and accompanying commentary, their book introduces readers to an array of eye-opening settings and characters grappling with the new abundance and potential harms of AI technologies like deep learning, mixed reality, robotics, artificial general intelligence, and autonomous weapons.

Additional text

“An invaluable and entertaining vision of the future.”—Ray Dalio, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Principles

“To say that AI 2041 is enlightening and valuable, is to understate its significance. . . . AI 2041’s scientific fiction gives us a way to open our eyes to what is actually going on all around us and where things are heading.”—John Kao, Forbes

“By blending imaginative storytelling and technical expertise, Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan bring to life a vision for AI that addresses both our curiosity and our fears. Read this captivating book to better understand how and when certain technologies are likely to mature, and what that could mean for all of us.”—Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

“We have reached a momentous inflection point with AI, and no other book I’ve read captures it with such stunning insight and imagination. Instead of wondering whether to trust AI, we must think of it as a tool—one that we humans are in charge of shaping. Kai-Fu Lee’s brilliant analysis in AI 2041 embodies this urgent mandate for humanity, while Chen Qiufan’s gripping stories reveal how AI can become a bridge between previously unsolvable problems and a future of new possibilities.”—Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO, Thrive Global

“AI 2041 is the perfect fusion of science and fiction, illuminating the pervasive impact artificial intelligence will have in our lives and the challenges we face in shaping a techno-future that benefits all of humanity.”—Marc Benioff, chair and CEO, Salesforce

“Applying AI to business usually means learning the technology first and then figuring out how to apply it. AI 2041 allows readers to take the exact opposite approach. Through amazingly entertaining stories, Lee and Chen take us on an immersive trip through the future and then zoom out with exceptionally clear explanations of the technology at work. The result is an enjoyable and eye-opening book for those trying to understand how to apply AI.”—Mark Cuban

“Making predictions about the future of AI is not for the faint of heart. This inspired collaboration between a pioneering technologist and a visionary writer of science fiction offers bold and urgent insights into how these technologies may impact our lives.”—Yann LeCun, winner of the Turing Award; chief AI scientist, Facebook

“Are we fit for the strange new world we seem determined to create? What is clear is that imagination-defying change is upon us. Less clear is what these changes will mean for humankind. Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan’s AI 2041 offers the most carefully and caringly considered visions of what is soon to come.”—Bennett Miller, Academy Award–nominated director of Moneyball and Foxcatcher

Product details

• Authors: Kai-Fu Lee, Lee Kai-Fu, Chen Qiufan
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 14.09.2021
• EAN: 9780593238295
• ISBN: 978-0-593-23829-5
• No. of pages: 480
• Dimensions: 160 mm x 240 mm x 40 mm
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Artificial Intelligence, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Future Studies, Information technology industries, Social forecasting, future studies, COMPUTERS / Artificial Intelligence / General