It is the Second Coming and the Apocalypse at the same time: Good AI versus evil AI.' -John Brockman More than sixty years ago, mathematician-philosopher Norbert Wiener published a book on the place of machines in society that ended with a warning: 'we shall never receive the right answers to our questions unless we ask the right questions. 'Artificial intelligence is today's story-the story behind all other stories.

(Feb.Science world luminary John Brockman assembles twenty-five of the most important scientific minds, people who have been thinking about the field artificial intelligence for most of their careers, for an unparalleled round-table examination about mind, thinking, intelligence and what it means to be human. The combination of theory and practice makes for enlightening, entertaining, and exciting reading. Church provocatively suggesting that modern, technology-using humans, when compared with Stone Age cultures, are already “transhumans.” Other essays underscore the necessity for ensuring that advanced AI acts in alignment with human values, while science historian George Dyson explores the difficulties inherent in controlling the technology, ending with the unsettling observation that “provably ‘good’ AI is a myth.” Readers will appreciate that the discussion is accompanied by intriguing explanations of AI development strategies, among them “deep learning,” generative adversarial networks, and inverse-reinforcement learning. Several argue that AI has already become a hallmark of human culture, with genetics researcher George M. While the authors disagree on the answers, they agree on the major question: what dangers might AI present to humankind? Within that framework, the essays offer a host of novel ideas.

The 25 contributors come from a wide range of disciplines and include philosopher Daniel Dennett, psychology professor Alison Gopnik, and Skype cofounder Jaan Tallinn. Brockman ( This Idea Is Brilliant, editor), founder of the literary agency Brockman Inc., devotes this entry into his series of science-oriented essay anthologies to exploring the frontiers of artificial intelligence.

Possible Minds by John Brockman