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Cover of Human Compatible by Stuart J. Russell

Human Compatible

  • 349 pages · about 6 hours
  • First published 2019
  • 7 editions

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1 About this book

"In the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable.

In this groundbreaking book, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines.

He describes the near-term benefits we can expect, from intelligent personal assistants to vastly accelerated scientific research, and outlines the AI breakthroughs that still have to happen before we reach superhuman AI. He also spells out the ways humans are already finding to misuse AI, from lethal autonomous weapons to viral sabotage. If the predicted breakthroughs occur and superhuman AI emerges, we will have created entities far more powerful than ourselves.

Good for readers who want: artificial intelligence and science.

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Science
  • Biotechnology
  • Safety measures
  • Risk assessment
  • Accidents
  • Automation
  • Computer industry

2 About Stuart J. Russell

Born 1962

Stuart Jonathan Russell (born 1962) is a British computer scientist known for his contributions to artificial intelligence (AI). He is a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley and was from 2008 to 2011 an adjunct professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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