Sweeping, thought-provoking ... I find Suleyman’s framing quite reasonable and helpful ... Compelling ... It is particularly impressive — and welcome — that Suleyman includes a wide-ranging and thoughtful discussion on concrete, practical steps we can take. His suggestions are remarkably broad and balanced ... A much-needed — and unusually thoughtful, expansive, historically rooted and engagingly written — guide.
Suleyman knows a thing or two about emerging technology ... He advocates pressure at critical choke points ... Even if Mr. Suleyman’s timing is off, his sense of the future seems directionally correct: AI and synthetic biology are creating transformative opportunities and existential dangers. As he plaintively asserts, now is the time to reckon with both possibilities.
The bad news is that Suleyman’s solution is effectively a utopian dream. He knows this, which is why there is an anguished undertone in the final chapters of the book ... Still, to his credit, he sticks to his guns to the end, winding up with a 10-step plan for containment, all of which makes sense and is eloquently articulated.
Suleyman is at his most compelling when illustrating the promises and perils of this new world. In breezy and sometimes breathless prose, he describes how human beings have finally managed to exert power over intelligence and life itself ... Suleyman does not support a tech moratorium (he did just start a new AI company). Instead he sets out a series of proposals at the end of the book. They are unfortunately not reassuring ... Suleyman is strikingly and conveniently optimistic. He believes that AI will solve the climate emergency. That is a happy thought – but if AI will solve the climate problem, why can’t it solve the containment problem too?
Shrewd ... Suleyman’s account of DeepMind’s achievements can come across as self-serving, but anecdotes about other companies working on technologies capable of, for instance, interfacing directly with the human brain, underscore the mind-bending possibilities. It’s a sober take on navigating the perils of AI.
