The Sentient Machine

The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence

By: Amir Husain

Narrated by: Simon Jones

“A must-read for anyone looking to understand how artificial intelligence is poised to transform human society and life.” —Paul Scharre, Author of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

The future is now. Acclaimed technologist and inventor Amir Husain explains how we can live amidst the coming age of sentient machines and artificial intelligence—and not only survive, but thrive.

Artificial “machine” intelligence is playing an ever-greater role in our society. We are already using cruise control in our cars, automatic checkout at the drugstore, and are unable to live without our smartphones. The discussion around AI is polarized; people think either machines will solve all problems for everyone, or they will lead us down a dark, dystopian path into total human irrelevance. Regardless of what you believe, the idea that we might bring forth intelligent creation can be intrinsically frightening. But what if our greatest role as humans so far is that of creators?

Amir Husain, a brilliant inventor and computer scientist, argues that we are on the cusp of writing our next, and greatest, creation myth. It is the dawn of a new form of intellectual diversity, one that we need to embrace in order to advance the state of the art in many critical fields, including security, resource management, finance, and energy. “In The Sentient Machine, Husain prepares us for a brighter future; not with hyperbole about right and wrong, but with serious arguments about risk and potential” (Dr. Greg Hyslop, Chief Technology Officer, The Boeing Company). He addresses broad existential questions surrounding the coming of AI: Why are we valuable? What can we create in this world? How are we intelligent? What constitutes progress for us? And how might we fail to progress? Husain boils down complex computer science and AI concepts into clear, plainspoken language and draws from a wide variety of cultural and historical references to illustrate his points. Ultimately, Husain challenges many of our societal norms and upends assumptions we hold about “the good life.”

Life Changing

Read this book and you will have hope in AI. Easily understood and mind expanding at the same time.

Dull But Good Content

There are a lot of facts about technology but the content is presented in a dull manner. This book is good for someone interested in the field and want to understand the nuances between the different terms (like machine learning versus deep learning). As computer technology advances, terminology changes and distinctions are made. For example, artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) is limited to specific tasks (like a GPS app that can estimate travel time based on day/time of the planned trip). Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a machine performing a task similar to a human being (like Siri answering a question).

Probably one of the best vulgarisation book on AI

I strongly recommend this book to anybody who is looking to learn more about the reality, practicality, opportunities, challenges and ethics of AI. It is not a technical book but most definitely can help most people make an informed opinion on those previously mentioned topics. In short, a great guide to support a critical thinking process as it relates to Artificial Intelligence vs succumbing to public argument and popular movies who play on Fear, Uncertainty and Doubts of people.

Great Overview of Pervasive AI

This book is a love story to coding and its arguably most advanced manifestation - artificial intelligence. Husain spends quite a bit of time explaining what, exactly, AI is and its history, where we currently are, and where we will be in the near future. He then spends considerable time looking at various areas where AI research is already being done and where it is already having an impact. His praise of the idiot John Maynard Keynes is a bit too effusive, and is indicative of how wrong Husain's thinking can be when he leaves the programmatic space. While this is but one concrete example, there are numerous others too that are the basis of the drop of a star. Among these are his praise for National Security Agency spying as well as domestic police spying on every day citizens, disregard of Constitutional freedom protections, labeling anything he disagrees with as a "myth", and a few others. Still, quite a remarkable book when it sticks to its central thesis, and highly recommended.

Specific to the Audible version: Jones' performance was simply amazing. Assuming this is the voice he uses for all of his Audible work, I'm def going to have to see what else he has. He uses a specific form of a British accent, unsure what it is called. Ian McEllan uses the same one when playing Magneto in the original XMen movies.

Bias, dull and uninformative.

i understand that this is the authors life work but he's so incredibly bias on the subject and glances over real concerns