'Engaging insightful panoramic' Mustafa Suleyman CEO of Microsoft AI & Cofounder of DeepMind
'An eye-opening exploration of a revolution unfolding before our eyes' New York Journal of
Books Stunning advances in digital technology have introduced a new wave of human-like AI
systems. Chatbots like ChatGPT Claude and Gemini are already reshaping economies challenge
democracies and reshaping society in unpredictable ways. And soon these AI systems could make
autonomous decisions on their users' behalf transforming everything we do. Understanding how
they work is crucial. Can AI systems think know and understand? Could they manipulate or
deceive you and if so what might they make you do? Whose interests do they represent?
When will they be able to move beyond words and take action in the real world? Neuroscientist
and AI researcher Christopher Summerfield explores these questions charting AI's evolution
from early ideas in the seventeenth century to today's deep neural networks. His book is the
most accessible up-to-date and authoritative exploration of this radical technology. With an
understanding of AI's inner workings we can address the existential question of our age: can
we look forward to a technological utopia or are we writing ourselves out of history? 'As a
leading authority...Summerfield is perfectly situated to explore the meaning and implications
of these machines that are so uncannily like - and unlike - ourselves' Brian Christian
co-author of Algorithms to Live by 'You might choose to be alarmed excited or indifferent
to LLMs but you should read Chris's book before you decide' Mike Woolridge author of The Road
to Conscious Machines
