Generative Artificial Intelligence: What Everyone Needs to Know ®

by Jerry Kaplan Narrated by Jonathan Yen

Overview

Advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) have created a new class of computer systems that exhibit astonishing proficiency on a wide variety of tasks with superhuman performance, producing novel text, images, music, and software by analyzing enormous collections of digitized information. Soon, these systems will provide expert medical care; offer legal advice; draft documents; write computer programs; tutor our children; and generate music and art. These advances will accelerate progress in science, art, and human knowledge, but they will also bring new dangers.



Have we finally discovered the holy grail of AI-machines that match or exceed human intelligence? Which industries and professions will thrive, and which will wither? What risks and dangers will it pose? How can we ensure that these systems respect our ethical principles? Will the benefits be broadly distributed or accrue to a lucky few? How will GAI alter our political systems and international conflicts? Are we merely a stepping stone to a new form of non-biological life, or are we just getting better at building useful gadgets?



Generative Artificial Intelligence: What Everyone Needs to Know® equips listeners with the knowledge to answer these pressing questions.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"An excellent single-volume synopsis of an important and technically formidable subject." — Kirkus Reviews

"Kaplan presents a comprehensive overview of artificial intelligence, discussing its promise and potential dangers." — Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

2024-01-24
Kaplan presents a comprehensive overview of artificial intelligence, discussing its promise and potential dangers.

The author, an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University, believes that artificial intelligence technology is poised to usher in a “new Renaissance” and catalyze a transformation as revolutionary as those that followed “the wheel, the printing press, the light bulb, and penicillin.” In splendidly accessible language, Kaplan focuses his attention on the future ramifications of generative artificial intelligence (GAI), which can respond to questions in plain language by drawing from massive pools of data to make remarkably fast and precise analytical judgments. According to the author, over time, GAI will not only learn and compute faster and more autonomously; it will also be able to learn directly from actual experience. As the technology inevitably improves, Kaplan posits, AI will remake entire industries. For example, GAI tools will be able to generate legal documents and contracts without a lawyer’s assistance and will find legal precedents with astonishing speed. Kaplan observes that, ironically, the profession largely responsible for the birth of GAI, software engineering, will be a victim of its own progeny. “I’ll telegraph this short and sweet: software engineering, as it’s practiced today, is dead. In the future, everyone will be a programmer. Computer programs, already ubiquitous, will drop in cost to almost zero, and proliferate dramatically.” The scope of Kaplan’s study, especially given its brevity, is impressively expansive—he discusses not only the implications of GAI for employment in several industries, but also the legal and philosophical disputes that will necessarily arise. The philosophical discussions are the weakest aspect of the book; in these instances, Kaplan’s penchant for abridgment is a vice (at one point, discussing the complexities of free will, he enthusiastically refers readers to Wikipedia). However, this remains a wonderfully edifying overview, one that includes a remarkably clear explanation of the technology itself and the manner in which GAI can be said to engage in “thinking.”

An excellent single-volume synopsis of an important and technically formidable subject.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192651513
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	06/25/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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