Our Final Invention

‘ **I wish it was science fiction,** but I know it’s not’ *Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype* ‘If you read just one book that makes you confront scary high-tech realities that we’ll soon have no choice but to address, **make it this one** ‘ *Washington Post* ‘The **best book yet** written on the most important problem of the twenty-first century’ *Luke Muehlhauser, Executive Director, Machine Intelligence Research Institute* ‘Science fiction has long explored the implications of humanlike machines, but Barrat’s thoughtful treatment adds **a dose of reality’** *Science News* **Corporations and government agencies around the world have for years been pouring billions into achieving AI’s Holy Grail – human-level intelligence.** Once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful, and more alien than we can imagine. First published ten years ago, *Our Final Invention* predicted much of the artificial ‘intelligence explosion’ that is now ripping through our culture. **Now with an urgent new preface, James Barrat’s landmark work explores the ethics, history and future perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI.** Until now, human intelligence has had no rival. Can we coexist with beings whose intelligence dwarfs our own? And will they allow us to?