What to Read Next: Our AI future, in fiction and non-fiction
Issue #351, featuring Benjamin Labatut and Parmy Olson
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Happy Friday, readers!
The rise of AI tools, particularly generative software like ChatGPT, is bound to be one of the biggest, most interesting stories ever told about the technology industry. There are already plenty of books about AI, but I haven’t read many of them just yet. I prefer to let things percolate a bit.
But I couldn’t resist the two books featured today, which share a common character in Demis Hassabis—one of the early pioneers of AI tech.
If you have recommendations for AI reading, I’d love to hear ‘em!
The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut
“There are things that are true that can’t be proven by science.”
I knew that this novel — which made waves last year amongst literary critics — was broadly about AI, but I didn’t know any specifics before grabbing it from the library and jumping in.
I was utterly absorbed after a couple of chapters and the TL;DR is that The MANIAC is on my shortlist for favorite reads of the year.
The MANIAC is a historical novel largely focused on the dawn of the nuclear age, which then bleeds into the AI age as a philosophical result. Labatut mostly focuses on the life of John von Neumann, a real scientist who doesn’t carry much name recognition these days but is widely considered one of the most brilliant minds to have ever lived.
Neumann’s very real computing machine, the Mathematical Analyzer Numerical Integrator and Automatic Computer (MANIAC I), changed the course of both WWII and the Cold War. As with many folks in that world, though, his relationships suffered deeply as a result. Labatut takes fictional liberties with those relationships, providing the narrative in snippets told through the perspective of the people around Neumann.
Among the dangers of leaning too much on scientific provability is the belief that everything can be explained and analyzed:
“Life is so much more than a game. Its full wealth and complexity cannot be captured by equations, no matter how beautiful or perfectly balanced. And human beings are not the perfect poker players that we envisioned. They can be highly irrational, driven and swayed by their emotions, subject to all kinds of contradictions. And while this sparks off the ungovernable chaos that we see all around us, it is also a mercy, a strange angel that protects us from the mad dreams of reason.”
From Neumann, Labatut draws a straight line to the fascinating work of Demis Hassabis, whose company created the first computer to beat a human in the ancient game of Go.
What Labatut argues, in the end, is that if the science exists, we will create it and push it to the boundaries. In uncorking the genie, human nature is such that we will not put it back in the bottle:
“For progress there is no cure.”
It has history, philosophy, science, and tech—all in a driving and experimental literary narrative. I’ll be thinking about the ideas in The MANIAC for a long time to come and I’m really excited to explore Labatut’s previous work.
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Reading is always better when done in community.
Supremacy: AI, Chatgpt, and the Race That Will Change the World by Parmy Olson
“Modern day AI models are so complex that even their creators don’t understand why they make certain decisions.”
From the moment ChatGPT was released into the world in November 2022, the tech industry was irrevocably changed and pivoted towards this hot new category.
Since then, we’ve seen AI features introduced into nearly every software we use on a daily basis, from Gmail to Instagram (or TikTok) to specialized industry apps, and even your smartphone device itself.
At the forefront of this so-called revolution are two tech titans: Sam Altman of OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT) and the lesser-known Demis Hassabis of DeepMind.
Both entrepreneurs had grand designs for their AI products being used to better humankind (or at least that’s what they always publicly stated), but each ultimately came up against the unrivaled bank accounts of Microsoft and Google.
With huge—astronomical—cash infusions, these AI companies are now largely at the behest of commercial interests. Instead of being used to solve poverty, now they’re powering YouTube algorithms, search results, and coding software. A far cry from benevolence, to say the least.
Parmy Olson’s account is riveting from start to finish—at least for someone with a deep interest in and wariness of the tech industry. She fishes through innumerable texts and emails, investor updates, and insider info to give readers the scoop on why we can’t trust any of these companies to operate in the best interests of anyone but their investors and the mega-rich CEOs/boards at the top of the org chart.
Here’s what is most concerning: nobody really knows what will happen each time these AI tools are released into the wild. And since all the money is coming from Big Tech, any data coming in and out of it is going straight into the pockets of billionaires.
Supremacy is not for everyone, but if you’re interested in Big Tech and the foundations of our current AI tools it certainly makes for compelling reading.
Thanks so much for reading. I deeply appreciate your time and inbox space!
-Jeremy
P.S. I’m now offering sponsored book reviews for Read More Books. Inquire at jeremy.anderberg@gmail.com.
P.S.S. I’m also doing some work as a freelance writer, editor, and content strategist, especially for non-profit organizations. If you have any needs in those areas, check out www.thecaspercreative.com.
They both sound fascinating. Thanks.
Great reviews on an area that’s difficult for me to understand. Thank you