Revealing the unfolding story of Artificial Intelligence Richard Susskind presents a short
non-technical guide that challenges us to think differently about AI. Susskind brings AI out of
computing laboratories big tech companies and start-ups - and into everyday life. In recent
years and certainly since the launch of ChatGPT there has been massive public and
professional interest in Artificial Intelligence. But people are confused about what AI is
what it can and cannot do what is yet to come and whether AI is good or bad for humanity and
civilisation - whether it will provide solutions to mankinds major challenges or become our
gravest existential threat. There is also confusion about how we should regulate AI and where
we should draw moral boundaries on its use. In How To Think About AI Richard Susskind draws
on his experience of working on AI since the early 1980s. For Susskind balancing the benefits
and threats of artificial intelligence is the defining challenge of our age. He explores the
history of AI and possible scenarios for its future. His views on AI are not always
conventional. He positions ChatGPT and generative AI as no more than the latest chapter in the
ongoing story of AI and claims we are still at the foothills of developments. He argues that to
think responsibly about the impact of AI requires us to look well beyond todays technologies
suggesting that not-yet-invented technologies will have far greater impact on us in the 2030s
than the tools we have today. This leads Susskind to discuss the possibility of conscious
machines magnificent new AI-enabled virtual worlds and the impact of AI on the evolution of
biological humans.
