I’m not sure where the positivity spoken of is - Gawdat’s answer is again, like so much current tosh: be stoic and mindful in the face of the unrelenting tsunami of social media, online advertising and coercion activity, and In doing this we will teach AI to be nice (?!?!?!) Including regulating our environment and economy and everything else computers currently do, and a whole lot more that we simply can’t predict, because we won’t be the ones inventing it or even making it anymore. Most importantly however, in the latter part of the book, he shares a totally hitherto unique point of view on how we can embrace this movement and use it as an aid in building a better world, since we cannot stop it’s progress. Dr Camilla Pang, author of Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us About Life, Love and Relationships From a brilliant mind comes a terrifying prediction - our puny efforts will not be enough to control the rise of the machines... Mo takes us on a whirlwind exploration of the fast-approaching singularity, and offers a desperate last chance to have a say in the future of humanity. Read this book!

It’s hard to remember how different life was before smart phones. That is, until the internet goes out and you have like NOTHING happening, and you can’t tolerate existing.When we ask computers to communicate, at first they communicate like we tell them, but if they're intelligent enough, they'll start to say, ‘that's too slow.’” If you consider the impact the the internet has had on our world over the past 30 years. It followed a sigmoid trajectory, whereby the it begins to be widely adopted around 1995, slowly ramps up in public interest, investment, adaptation and impact over the next 25 years with mass adaptation, and eventually levels off as the limits of our current tech paradigm are reached. Children don't learn from what you say. They learn from what you do." AIs are already reading and learning from what we say and choose and do online. And what we support. Every year we create more information than we created in human history to date. So "the store of collective human knowledge is diluted by 50% each year" and altered in tone by the new data. Mo draws on his vast experience in the technology industry to explain the workings of AI and its potential impact on our lives. He argues that, as humans, we have a choice regarding AI, either embrace it and try to shape its development in a positive direction or avoid it altogether. However, the latter is not feasible since Pandora's box of AI has already been opened. There will always be those seeking to use it to further their financial gain. By following a strict prescriptive method, we become dumber, because we lose the ability to think for ourselves."

Scary Smart is a fascinating, engaging and impeccably researched book exploring the future of Artificial Intelligence written by expert Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer of Google [X] which is Google’s ‘moonshot factory’. It covers topics such as his view on of how AI is rapidly evolving, the risks of AI, and ultimately how we can remain in control of our collective future through a thoughtful approach to our interactions with technology. After a long career in tech, Mo made happiness his primary topic of research, diving deeply into literature and conversing on the topic with some of the wisest people in the world on “Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat”. But he soon put his expertise to use by writing this book and his fusion of deep expertise of technology as well as a passionate appreciation for the importance of human connection and happiness. The vast array of overlapping skills he possesses and a breadth of knowledge in the fields of both human psychology and tech which is a rarity we're then out to good use - creating Scary Smart. This latest piece of work is a timely prophecy and call to action that puts each of us at the center of designing the future of humanity. That might sound intense, but it's also very true. During his time at Google [X], he worked on the world’s most futuristic technologies, including Artificial Intelligence.A useful summary of all things AI whilst also introducing topics and potential problems that I have never even considered! This provided a great balance of the good and the bad, allowing the reader to use evidence and questions posed to come to their own conclusions, whilst carefully interweaving facts with humour and speculation. I particularly loved the sections on ethics and morality. Mo Gawdat is the former chief business officer for Google X and has built a monumental career in the tech industry working with the biggest names to reshape and reimagine the world as we know it. From IBM to Microsoft, Mo has lived at the cutting edge of technology and has taken a strong stance that AI is a bigger threat to humanity than global warming.