BOOK
The Intelligence Explosion by James Barrat cuts through the noise surrounding artificial intelligence, offering a sober analysis where both doomsayers and techno-optimists fall short. As generative AI transforms our world at breakneck speed, Barrat—a veteran technology journalist—provides the critical framework we urgently need to assess its true implications.
Drawing on exclusive interviews with leading AI researchers and ethicists, Barrat reveals how even the architects of today's most powerful systems struggle to understand their creations' capabilities and limitations. The book meticulously documents how major tech companies have repeatedly deployed systems that produce convincing but factually incorrect outputs, amid many other errors, raising profound questions about reliability and control.
What distinguishes this work is Barrat's nuanced exploration of AI's dual nature: its potential to address humanity's greatest challenges alongside its capacity for unprecedented harm. Neither alarmist nor naively optimistic, The Intelligence Explosion delivers the intellectual clarity essential for citizens, policymakers, and technologists navigating this pivotal moment in human history.
“AGI maybe years or even decades (and not just months) away, but James Barrat is right; we are not prepared. And as Barrat says here, in The Intelligence Explosion, "generative AI carries risks that are unlike anything we’ve faced before". The time to act is now.
— Dr. Gary Marcus, NYU Professor Emeritus, and author of Taming Silicon Valley
"James Barrat pulls no punches in his powerful new book The Intelligence Explosion. He deftly explores the many perspectives on the AI tsunami about to crash into humanity. I believe there are solutions to the problems he describes, and I am hopeful his book will help wake up us all to the urgency of taking action. Read the book and share it for the good of humankind, but keep your support network close as it can be quite disturbing."
— Steve Omohundro, Founder/CEO at Possibility Research and Chief Scientist at AI Brain
"A great tension exists currently where people in AI or AGI labs understand that they are putting the rest of society at risk, yet the rest of society doesn’t realize what is going on. James Barrat’s work is important to help address this great disequilibrium."
— Jaan Tallinn, founding engineer of Skype and Kazaa and a co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and the Future of Life Institute
"With snappy writing and entertaining anecdotes, The Intelligence Explosion unpacks the powerful cultural narrative that advanced AI poses an existential risk to humanity’s continued dominion over our fragile planet. James Barrat is among those whose investigations lead him to conclude that the threat is real, and to date attempts to control or ensure advanced AI will be safe and benign have yielded no fruit."
— Wendell Wallach, author of A Dangerous Master
“James Barrat’s The Intelligence Explosion offers a comprehensive examination of the potential for recursive self-improvement in artificial intelligence systems. The book methodically outlines scenarios in which AI systems could rapidly exceed human cognitive capacities through iterative enhancements, presenting detailed analyses of the technical challenges and risks associated with such developments. From my perspective as an AI safety researcher, the work provides a rigorous and systematic assessment of both the transformative potential and the significant safety concerns inherent in the pursuit of advanced AI technologies.”
- Professor Roman Yampolskiy, author of AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable
"When the machines outthink us, will they outmaneuver us? Barrat’s The Intelligence Explosion is a wake-up call we can’t afford to ignore."
-Adam A. Ford, Futurologist, Data Architect, M.IT
“Is Big Tech gradually automating away all our jobs? And once we add nothing to the GDP will our AI and human overlords conclude we are a pointless waste of resources? James Barrat’s The Intelligence Explosion makes well-argued cases for both of these outcomes, while drawing solutions from a minority of AI scientists who are trying to think us out of a totalitarian takeover, and maybe worse. Barrat lays the groundwork for thinking about these and related AI conundrums. Along the way he reveals aspects of AI luminaries such as Alan Turing, IJ Good, and Frank Rosenblatt, that rarely see the light of day."
- Remmelt Ellen, AI Safety Research Coordinator and author of Artificial Bodies
“This 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 colored by rapidly improving technological competence.”
- New York Journal of Books
“Barrat 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.”
- Reason
“Enthusiasts 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 Reviews
“Barrat'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