Scary Smart

Gabi's Review

AI has the potential to deliver us the utopia we all dreamed life could become. But whatever your PDoom, (“p” stands for probability, and “doom” for your belief that a sophisticated AI may extend beyond human control), Mo Gawdat’s book Scary Smart poses a crucial question. How do we align the outcomes of superintelligence to core human values, when humanity has collectively failed to adhere to the values of community and empathy? Having worked for IBM, Microsoft and Google X as the Chief Business Officer, Gawdat is perfectly positioned to trace the history of the development of AI; to inform us of its current capabilities and where it might be headed. I can thoroughly recommend Scary Smart for anyone interested in this timely and thoroughly fascinating subject as AI passes parity with human intelligence and transcends it.

Publishers Review

"Technology is putting our humanity at risk to an unprecedented degree. This book is not for engineers who write the code or the policy makers who claim they can regulate it. This is a book for you. Because, believe it or not, you are the only one that can fix it". Artificial intelligence is smarter than humans. It can process information at lightning speed and remain focused on specific tasks without distraction. AI can see into the future, predict outcomes and even use sensors to see around physical and virtual corners. So why does AI frequently get it so wrong and cause harm?

The answer is us: the human beings who write the code and teach AI to mimic our behaviour. Scary Smart explains how to fix the current trajectory now, to make sure that the AI of the future can preserve our species. This book offers a blueprint, pointing the way to what we can do to safeguard ourselves, those we love and the planet itself.

A Sunday Times Business Book of the Year.

'No one ever regrets reading anything Mo Gawdat has written.' - Emma Gannon, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Multi-Hyphen Method and host of award-winning podcast Ctrl Alt Delete 

'Mo is an exquisite writer and speaker with deep expertise of technology . . . This book will teach you how to navigate the scary and inevitable intrusion of AI.' - Dr Rupy Aujla, author of The Doctor's Kitchen