Stuart Russell

Human Compatible

  • Human Compatible

  • A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: 'The most important book I have read in quite some time' Daniel Kahneman; 'A must-read' Max Tegmark; 'The book we've all been waiting for' Sam Harris

    Humans dream of super-intelligent machines. But what happens if we actually succeed?

    Creating superior intelligence would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, according to the world's pre-eminent AI expert, it could also be the last.

    In this groundbreaking book, Stuart Russell sets out why he has come to consider his own discipline an existential threat to humanity, and how we can change course before it's too late. In brilliant and lucid prose, he explains how AI actually works and its enormous capacity to improve our lives - and why we must never lose control of machines more powerful than we are. Russell contends that we can avert the worst threats by reshaping the foundations of AI to guarantee that machines pursue our objectives, not theirs. Profound, urgent and visionary, Human Compatible is the one book everyone needs to read to understand a future that is coming sooner than we think.

    LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES & McKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR

    'Thought-provoking' Financial Times

    'Fascinating and significant' Sunday Times

    'The most important book on AI this year' Guardian

Stuart Russell is a professor of Computer Science and holder of the Smith-Zadeh Chair in Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, University of Oxford. He has advised Number 10 and the United Nations about the risks of AI. In 1990, he received the Presidential Young Investigator Award of the National Science Foundation, in 1995 he was co-winner of the Computers and Thought Award and in 2005 he received the ACM Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award. He is the author (with Peter Norvig) of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, the Number One bestselling textbook in AI which is used in over 1,300 universities in 118 countries around the world. He was born in England and lives in Berkeley.

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