The AI Generation

Shaping Our Global Future with Thinking Machines

By: Olaf Groth, Mark Nitzberg

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eBook | 6 November 2018

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336 Pages

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The “Trolley Problem” has long been a favorite of philosophy classes—do you flip a switch on a train line and save five lives at the expense of one? The answer has remained academic—until now. Those writing the code for driverless cars not only have to discuss all the ramifications and scenarios of the “Trolley Problem,” they have to provide a B&W answer for all variations of it. This is just one example of how the continuing advancement of technology collides with age-old ethical and cultural mainstays.Solomon's Code delves into how difficult moral questions must now be “solved” as we design robots and AI. Whether it is medicine money, or personal decisions about love and family, AI will one day be guiding, prompting and perhaps even forcing us to do “the right thing.” But what is the right thing? Would the answer be the same in NYC or Kansas, Shanghai or Riyadh? With insight and clarity, Grof and Nitzberg explores the history of intelligent technology and reveals just how close we are to designing machines that have some sort of consciousness, and thus will also need a conscience. Simultaneously thrilling and provocative, Solomon’s Code will make us think deeply about what it means to be human as our technology rapidly becomes just as—or more—powerful than we are.

Industry Reviews

Groth and Nitzberg discuss the future of artificial intelligence in numerous spheres—medicine, civil defense, education, and more—identifying potential moral quandaries in each. Their nuanced analysis explores not just how to ensure that ‘the machines will treat us fairly,’ but also that these machines’ human designers are ethically sound. Their positive outlook, free of the doomsday theorizing common elsewhere, makes for a refreshingly calm discussion of the future of AI.