Our Final Invention

Our Final Invention is a thrilling detective story, and also the best book yet written on the most important problem of the twenty-first century – Luke Muehlhauser, Executive Director, Machine Intelligence Research InstituteThe compelling story of humanity’s most critical challenge. A Silent Spring for the twenty-first century. – Michael Vassar, former President, Singularity InstituteAn important and disturbing book – Huw Price, co-founder, Cambridge University Centre for the Study of Existential RiskEnthusiasts dominate observers of progress in artificial intelligence; the minority who disagree are alarmed, articulate and perhaps growing in numbers, and Barrat delivers a thoughtful account of their worries – Kirkus ReviewsThis book makes an important case that without extraordinary care in our planning, powerful “thinking” machines present at least as many risks as benefits … Our Final Invention makes an excellent read for technophiles as well as readers wishing to get a glimpse of the near future as coloured by rapidly improving technological competence – New York Journal of BooksA dark new book by James Barrat, Our Final Invention lays out a strong case for why we should be at least a little worried – NewYorker.comYou can skip coffee this week - Our Final Invention will keep you wide-awake – Singularity HubScience fiction has long explored the implications of humanlike machines (think of Asimov’s I, Robot), but Barrat’s thoughtful treatment adds a dose of reality – Science NewsBarrat has talked to all the significant American players in the effort to create recursively self-improving artificial general intelligence in machines. He makes a strong case that AGI with human-level intelligence will be developed in the next couple of decades … His thoughtful case about the dangers of ASI gives even the most cheerful technological optimist much to think about. – ReasonBarrat’s book is excellently written and deeply researched. It does a great job of communicating to general readers the danger of mistakes in AI design and implementation. – Bill Hibbard, author of ‘Super-Intelligent Machines’

James Barrat is a documentary filmmaker who’s written and produced films for National Geographic, Discovery, PBS, and many other broadcasters in the United States and Europe. He lives near Washington, DC with his wife and two children.