Our Final Invention

Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era

By: James Barrat

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Paperback | 25 July 2023 | Edition Number 1

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Paperback
352 Pages

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19.5 x 12 x 3.5

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Corporations and government agencies around the world have for years been pouring billions into achieving AI's Holy Grail - human-level intelligence. But once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful, and more alien than we can imagine.

First published ten years ago, Our Final Invention predicted much of the artificial 'intelligence explosion' that is now ripping through our culture, and was named by Elon Musk as one of five books everyone should read about the future. Now with an urgent new preface, James Barrat's landmark work explores the ethics, history and future perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI. Until now, human intelligence has had no rival. Can we coexist with beings whose intelligence dwarfs our own? And will they allow us to?

About the Author

James Barrat is a documentary filmmaker who's written and produced films for National Geographic, Discovery, PBS, and many other broadcasters in the United States and Europe. He lives near Washington, DC with his wife and two children.

Industry Reviews

Our Final Invention is a thrilling detective story, and also the best book yet written on the most important problem of the twenty-first century.

The compelling story of humanity's most critical challenge. A Silent Spring for the twenty-first century.

An important and disturbing book

Enthusiasts dominate observers of progress in artificial intelligence; the minority who disagree are alarmed, articulate and perhaps growing in numbers, and Barrat delivers a thoughtful account of their worries

This book makes an important case that without extraordinary care in our planning, powerful "thinking" machines present at least as many risks as benefits . . . Our Final Invention makes an excellent read for technophiles as well as readers wishing to get a glimpse of the near future as coloured by rapidly improving technological competence

A dark new book by James Barrat, Our Final Invention lays out a strong case for why we should be at least a little worried

You can skip coffee this week - Our Final Invention will keep you wide-awake

Science fiction has long explored the implications of humanlike machines (think of Asimov's I, Robot), but Barrat's thoughtful treatment adds a dose of reality

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