I rate this a 2.5 stars. If you want to understand the extreme/alarmist position on AI, this is the book. Going along for the ride, the technical information is good and the internal logic makes sense. However, there are dubious philosophical presumptions (likely coming from the author’s worldviews) that are used as the premise for their arguments. These are assumed as true, not always acknowledged, and highly debatable. Because of this, it leads this otherwise serious book to conclude/say some unserious things. No, AI is not a brand new living entity, nor is it God.
I say all of this not as an AI optimist but as a fellow pessimist. I am in complete alignment with the authors that AI could have disastrous consequences. I dont think it’s helpful to say the reason AInis a problem is because things even crazier than in the move the terminator will happen (minus the time travel parts). There are intelligent people in this field with very different opinions and I don’t think those were taken very seriously, some even straw-manned. It would have been nice to have dove into AI hallucinations but instead the book operates on the premise that AI will work flawlessly at whatever it attempts. Nonetheless, I appreciated learning more about this perspective and would recommend this still to those would also want to hear another perspective.