andyh94 's review for:

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

2.0

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Whilst a thought provoking summary of many of humanity's greatest threats, I worry that Harari is presenting as fact opinions on topics that they have seemingly limited understanding of. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are *not* the harbingers of the apocalypse Harari so claims. Yes, General Artificial Intelligence may pose a threat in the future, but this would be a far future at best. As a scientist with regular exposure to the world of Artificial Intelligence, I can firmly conclude that the claims of "intellectual superiority" by AI made by Harari are, at best, completely misguided. AI has fragile Intelligence, specific to one task for each algorithm, and arguably has no real form of cognition or Intelligence. Indeed, AI in both abstract and symbolic forms are incapable of true understanding of the world as we, the human creators, have yet to fully understand what defines Intelligence. Without this definition, it is not an attribute we can hope to impart, measure, or claim to understand.

This is a review from only the portion of the book I have read so far. I will update on further reading.