The 21st century will be shaped not by infotech alone, but rather by the merger of infotech with biotech.

Naturally enough Tegmark’s map is not complete, and in particular it does not give enough attention to the confluence of AI with biotechnology. A superintelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.” Tegmark covers as much ground as possible, reviewing the impact of AI on the job market, warfare and political systemsĪs for the obsession with robots, we should remind ourselves that a surveillance system – one that constantly tracks people and uses Big Data algorithms to analyse their behaviour and personality – can destroy our privacy, our individuality and our democratic institutions without any need for Terminator-style killer machines. In Tegmark’s words, “the real risk with artificial general intelligence isn’t malice but competence. Artificial intelligence need not be evil and need not be encased in a robotic frame in order to wreak havoc. While science fiction has caused many people to worry about evil robots, for instance, Tegmark rightly emphasises that the real problem is with the unforeseen consequences of developing highly competent AI. Life 3.0 does a good job of clarifying basic terms and key debates, and in dispelling common myths. Instead of pushing any one agenda or prediction, Tegmark seeks to cover as much ground as possible, reviewing a wide variety of scenarios concerning the impact of AI on the job market, warfare and political systems. Written in an accessible and engaging style, and aimed at the general public, the book offers a political and philosophical map of the promises and perils of the AI revolution. Max Tegmark’s Life 3.0 tries to rectify the situation. (Most generally held ideas about AI come from SF movies such as The Terminator and The Matrix.) Without a better understanding of the field, we cannot comprehend the dilemmas we are facing: when science becomes politics, scientific ignorance becomes a recipe for political disaster. This is largely because most people have only a very dim and limited understanding of machine learning, neural networks and artificial intelligence. It has not been a major subject in any election campaign, and most parties, politicians and voters seem to have no opinion about it. Unfortunately, AI has so far hardly registered on our political radar. Hence it is not something we can leave to Silicon Valley – it should be among the most important items on our political agenda. This choice is not a matter of engineering or science.

AI should be among the most important items on our political agenda – it has hardly registered on our political radar

Life 3.0 by max tegmark