Culture
To understand the power – and limitations – of artificial intelligence, we need information, not hype. Alex Wilkins explores what four new books offer
THE success of large language models like ChatGPT as part of the development of artificial intelligence has left the future looking even more uncertain than cliché normally paints it, adding fresh urgency to old questions. Are we set for a utopian future of abundance, or might we be facing a world in which we eventually fuse with machines? Could there be dark times ahead, where we worship false gods that reflect our worst biases back to us, or will these strange tools help us better define our own nature?
A tranche of new books may help navigate these waters. Let’s start with philosopher Nick Bostrom, who became well-known in AI circles for Superintelligence, his 2014 book in which he conjured the idea of an AI so much smarter than humans, across so many domains, that it could pose an existential threat to us.
The idea of a “superintelligent” and malevolent AI has been taken very seriously by some technology companies, notably OpenAI, and has elevated Bostrom to a key figure in the “AI safety” movement. But the approach has also been ridiculed by many as overly pessimistic and not grounded in reality.
It is unclear whether criticisms of being overly gloomy have got under Bostrom’s skin, but he has turned his attention to far rosier futures in his new book, Deep Utopia: Life and meaning in a solved world. Here, Bostrom draws the contours of what our possible futures might look like, assuming the breathless hype around AI turns out to be true. The book isn’t a conventional philosophical tome: it is structured as a series of lectures to fictional students, sometimes turning into a Socratic dialogue, with occasional digressions into letters written from the perspective of a worried fox.
The writing is often clunky and there are some painful comedic asides, but there are enough fresh ideas in the book to make it a stimulating read. Bostrom asks how the economics of a post-work society might function, what kinds of utopia could exist and whether it will be possible to find meaning and purpose in a world where machines can do everything for us.
Like Superintelligence, though, it falters in its core assumption that human-like artificial general intelligence (AGI) can be achieved, and superhumanly so. Many other eyebrow-raising suggestions, such as uploading our
