Artificial Intelligence - by Jason C Robinson (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This thought-provoking book explores the most promising and threatening technology imaginable--artificial intelligence (AI) or thinking-machines. Following the shocking release of generative AI (ChatGPT) in 2022, questions about the future of humanity and our role as apex minds have exploded with great urgency. The book contributes uniquely to AI conversations in three main ways. First, it broaches questions often ignored by AI developers and tech-enthusiasts, including corporate responsibility and the role technology plays in the widespread manipulation of cultures for profit and power. Second, it asks big and unanswered questions about the nature of thinking, consciousness, morality, purpose, and the good life, as a means of laying the foundation needed to create a better AI. Third, by framing AI evolution in three unique stages of development--Oz, Feallan, and Adouren--it takes readers far beyond the present horizon of large language models. While being accessible to a wide audience, this book offers a thought-provoking examination of the most pressing questions and risks of AI.

From the Back Cover

This though-provoking book explores the most promising and threatening technology imaginable--artificial intelligence (AI) or thinking-machines. Following the shocking release of generative AI (ChatGPT) in 2022, questions about the future of humanity and our role as apex minds have exploded with great urgency. The book contributes uniquely to AI conversations in three main ways. First, it broaches questions often ignored by AI developers and tech-enthusiasts, including corporate responsibility and the role technology plays in the widespread manipulation of cultures for profit and power. Second, it asks big and unanswered questions about the nature of thinking, consciousness, morality, purpose, and the good life, as a means of laying the foundation needed to create a better AI. Third, by framing AI evolution in three unique stages of development--Oz, Feallan, and Adouren--it takes readers far beyond the present horizon of large language models. While being accessible to a wide audience, this book offers a thought-provoking examination of the most pressing questions and risks of AI.

About the Author

Jason C. Robinson teaches philosophy at York University. Robinson specializes in 20th-century continental philosophy, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of science and technology. His most recent publication is Active Hermeneutics: Seeking Understanding in an Age of Objectivism, co-authored with Stanley E. Porter. Other areas of research interest include interdisciplinary studies, the nature of time, and aesthetics.