Artificial intelligence: What everyone needs to know

Over the coming decades, Artifcial Intelligence will profoundly impact the way we live, work, wage war, seek a mate, educate our young, and care for our elderly. It is likely to greatly increase our aggregate wealth, but it will also upend our Labor markets, reshuffle our social order, and strain our private and public institutions. Eventually it may alter how we see our place in the universe, as machines continue to advance in arenas previously believed to be the sole dominion of humans. In Artificial Intelligence: What Everyone Needs to Know, Jerry Kaplan unpacks the complex issues surrounding AI in clear, non-technical language. Can machines really surpass human intelligence? How will AI affect our jobs and incomes? Can a robot knowingly commit a crime? How can a machine be conscious or exercise fee will? Many AI systems now learn from experience, and take actions beyond the scope of their initial programming. As such, they raise troubling questions for society. Should your personal robot be allowed to stand in line for you, or be forced to testify against you in a court of law? Are you solely responsible for all its actions? Should robots ever be granted the right to own property or enter into contracts? If it turns out to be possible to upload your mind into a machine, is that still you? The answers may surprise you. (back cover).