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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
informative
fast-paced
One of the pioneers in the AI revolution will explain the reasons behind China's rise in technology world, how it will affect the balance of economical and technological power between US and China in near future. But more important than that, he also talks about how disruptive AI can be to our society, and some of the scenarios that can be unfold. In conclusion, AI may become our biggest threat, as well as our greatest opportunity, depends all on ourself.
Mostly great, though there are some outdated opinions
informative
fast-paced
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Really nice analysis of what AI is good at, what it is likely to do in the future, which factors are important in cultivating AI national knowledge/institutions and how it could contribute to inequality. That's the first two thirds, then the last third is about the author getting cancer and meeting a Taiwanese monk. I wish I was joking
informative
Normally I don't do "plot summary" reviews, but for this solid non-fiction book with several aspects, that feels like the right approach.
Lee goes into several aspects of AI. First he defines the difference between specialized AI and general AI, and explains why the former is burgeoning right now (several breakthroughs have been invented and are now being applied to many industries; we are in the "age of implementation"), but why general AI is still a loooong way out. He also explains what machine learning is and why it's useful.
The first half of the book got a bit repititious. There were several different examples of different companies and products in the US and China. There was a lot of comparison of how they did things differently. He supplements big-picture ideas with concrete examples from his own experience as a startup founder and VC funder, and this is all useful. However he tends to repeat his main points quite a bit, and at halfway through the book I was beginning to be worried by this.
However it picked up actually after that point. In the second half he goes into a few different directions. First he explains why there is a coming jobs crisis (and therefore crisis of meaning for humanity) and why it's different than past inventions that have disrupted markets in the past. He compiles a short list of the biggest disrupters in history and does a very condensed history lesson on them. Then he explains why it's different from even the biggest industry disrupters of history in both its scale and the speed at which it will happen. The numbers discussed by economists and other experts should be very startling. And he explains, based on his extensive experience as a VC funder, where he disagrees with the assumptions of the economists, and I considered his points to be solid.
The book then takes a sharp unexpected (but very good!) turn when he tells his own personal life story: how he used to be all about maximizing financial and status success, and only putting minimal effort into his relationships with family and friends who weren't key to his ascending the ladder of "success." Then he was diagnosed with cancer, and began a journey of re-discovering what it truly means to be human, which was very interesting and well-done, and ends up directly impacting the last chapters of the book, where he makes recommendations for addressing the jobs crisis.
He spells out what the currently-recommended solutions are for the jobs/meaning crisis and then posits his own recommendations, which I think are spot-on. He has so much depth when it comes to the human factors. He's a really unique combination of understanding technical factors, human factors, and how real businesses and government work. Only he could have written a book like this.
My only criticisms are that the first half was a bit repetitive, and personally, I would augment his recommendations in the last chapters a little. IMO the creative arts should be another path included in his list of job categories that we need to change our social contract around, and I think it's a mistake to leave those out.
With that being said...this is a really solid read I will be recommending to people. I'm very glad I read it. It has given me a lot of information and a lot of good theories for the world-building I'm doing for a set of sci-fi novels that I have been planning for some time.
Kai-Fu Lee has made a really important contribution to the global understanding of AI and has brought a human element to the discussion that could not be more important. I really applaud him for this work.
Lee goes into several aspects of AI. First he defines the difference between specialized AI and general AI, and explains why the former is burgeoning right now (several breakthroughs have been invented and are now being applied to many industries; we are in the "age of implementation"), but why general AI is still a loooong way out. He also explains what machine learning is and why it's useful.
The first half of the book got a bit repititious. There were several different examples of different companies and products in the US and China. There was a lot of comparison of how they did things differently. He supplements big-picture ideas with concrete examples from his own experience as a startup founder and VC funder, and this is all useful. However he tends to repeat his main points quite a bit, and at halfway through the book I was beginning to be worried by this.
However it picked up actually after that point. In the second half he goes into a few different directions. First he explains why there is a coming jobs crisis (and therefore crisis of meaning for humanity) and why it's different than past inventions that have disrupted markets in the past. He compiles a short list of the biggest disrupters in history and does a very condensed history lesson on them. Then he explains why it's different from even the biggest industry disrupters of history in both its scale and the speed at which it will happen. The numbers discussed by economists and other experts should be very startling. And he explains, based on his extensive experience as a VC funder, where he disagrees with the assumptions of the economists, and I considered his points to be solid.
The book then takes a sharp unexpected (but very good!) turn when he tells his own personal life story: how he used to be all about maximizing financial and status success, and only putting minimal effort into his relationships with family and friends who weren't key to his ascending the ladder of "success." Then he was diagnosed with cancer, and began a journey of re-discovering what it truly means to be human, which was very interesting and well-done, and ends up directly impacting the last chapters of the book, where he makes recommendations for addressing the jobs crisis.
He spells out what the currently-recommended solutions are for the jobs/meaning crisis and then posits his own recommendations, which I think are spot-on. He has so much depth when it comes to the human factors. He's a really unique combination of understanding technical factors, human factors, and how real businesses and government work. Only he could have written a book like this.
My only criticisms are that the first half was a bit repetitive, and personally, I would augment his recommendations in the last chapters a little. IMO the creative arts should be another path included in his list of job categories that we need to change our social contract around, and I think it's a mistake to leave those out.
With that being said...this is a really solid read I will be recommending to people. I'm very glad I read it. It has given me a lot of information and a lot of good theories for the world-building I'm doing for a set of sci-fi novels that I have been planning for some time.
Kai-Fu Lee has made a really important contribution to the global understanding of AI and has brought a human element to the discussion that could not be more important. I really applaud him for this work.
Pretty good book on AI, China and how to find meaningful replacement occupation for the future loss of jobs that AI will trigger.
I was enthralled by the objective of the book; adding to my passable knowledge of AI is something that is a goal of mine. The bulk of the book did that, but towards the end the author wrote about his grave confrontation with the most existentially-illuminating experience: cancer. Here is where I was mildly disappointed. Personally speaking, I do not like to read books with mixed orientations; I prefer for memoirs and scientific reads to be read separately.
Lee wrote that investors and researchers, who developed technological advancements in AI, should take responsibility for their actions by resolving the issues of the workforce reconstruction and fortuitous anxiety. But that is the problem: he is an investor and a researcher who further extended implications of this 'cutting-edge' technology. No singular individual should be held liable for this looming anxiety circulating AI, but placing the blame on VCs is not the answer.
Also, Lee's TED talk summarizes the book well enough to be it's stand in.
Lee wrote that investors and researchers, who developed technological advancements in AI, should take responsibility for their actions by resolving the issues of the workforce reconstruction and fortuitous anxiety. But that is the problem: he is an investor and a researcher who further extended implications of this 'cutting-edge' technology. No singular individual should be held liable for this looming anxiety circulating AI, but placing the blame on VCs is not the answer.
Also, Lee's TED talk summarizes the book well enough to be it's stand in.