Genius Makers

'This colourful page-turner puts artificial intelligence into a human perspective . . . Metz explains this transformative technology and makes the quest thrilling.' Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs ____________________________________________________ This is the inside story of a small group of mavericks, eccentrics and geniuses who turned Artificial Intelligence from a fringe enthusiasm into a transformative technology. It's the story of how that technology became big business, creating vast fortunes and sparking intense rivalries. And it's the story of breakneck advances that will shape our lives for many decades to come - both for good and for ill. ________________________________________________ 'One day soon, when computers are safely driving our roads and speaking to us in complete sentences, we'll look back at Cade Metz's elegant, sweeping Genius Makers as their birth story - the Genesis for an age of sentient machines.' Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store and The Upstarts 'A ringside seat at what may turn out to be the pivotal episode in human history . . . easy and fun to read . . . undeniably charming.' Forbes

'This colourful page-turner puts artificial intelligence into a human perspective . . . Metz explains this transformative technology and makes the quest thrilling.' Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs ____________________________________________________ This is the inside story of a small group of mavericks, eccentrics and geniuses who turned Artificial Intelligence from a fringe enthusiasm into a transformative technology. It's the story of how that technology became big business, creating vast fortunes and sparking intense rivalries. And it's the story of breakneck advances that will shape our lives for many decades to come - both for good and for ill. ________________________________________________ 'One day soon, when computers are safely driving our roads and speaking to us in complete sentences, we'll look back at Cade Metz's elegant, sweeping Genius Makers as their birth story - the Genesis for an age of sentient machines.' Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store and The Upstarts 'A ringside seat at what may turn out to be the pivotal episode in human history . . . easy and fun to read . . . undeniably charming.' Forbes

NOW IN PAPERBACK: New York Times Silicon Valley beat reporter Cade Metz's insider perspective on the greatest tech story of our time-a story that no one else has been in a position to tell What does it mean to be smart? To be human? What do we really want from life and the intelligence we have or might create? Long dismissed as unattainable, artificial intelligence was, for decades, ignored by the big tech giants and universities. The small community of AI researchers worked on the fringes of the scientific community. Then, in 2008, two chance meetings changed everything. The first was between a university researcher and a Microsoft programmer. The second was at Google, where another academic convinced a Google exec to pay closer attention. Within months both realized the same thing: AI-real artificial intelligence-was far closer than they realized. The first company to achieve full AI would dominate the next several decades of tech. The race was on. Google immediately launched an in-house AI lab. They also went after the few AI researchers, both in academia and those running startups. Microsoft did the same but stumbled due to their bureaucracy. Facebook took notice and quickly poached Microsoft's team. Then Elon Musk jumped in and founded OpenAI, stealing talent from both Google and Facebook. The tech battle grew to include China and Russia with terrifying potential consequences. Metz's epic story dramatically presents the fierce competition among national interests, shareholder value, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the very human concerns about privacy, security, bias, and prejudice. This technology is already guiding our leisure time, our retail choices, our cars, our factories, our markets, and our military weapons. How far will we let it go?

NOW IN PAPERBACK: New York Times Silicon Valley beat reporter Cade Metz's insider perspective on the greatest tech story of our time-a story that no one else has been in a position to tell What does it mean to be smart? To be human? What do we really want from life and the intelligence we have or might create? Long dismissed as unattainable, artificial intelligence was, for decades, ignored by the big tech giants and universities. The small community of AI researchers worked on the fringes of the scientific community. Then, in 2008, two chance meetings changed everything. The first was between a university researcher and a Microsoft programmer. The second was at Google, where another academic convinced a Google exec to pay closer attention. Within months both realized the same thing: AI-real artificial intelligence-was far closer than they realized. The first company to achieve full AI would dominate the next several decades of tech. The race was on. Google immediately launched an in-house AI lab. They also went after the few AI researchers, both in academia and those running startups. Microsoft did the same but stumbled due to their bureaucracy. Facebook took notice and quickly poached Microsoft's team. Then Elon Musk jumped in and founded OpenAI, stealing talent from both Google and Facebook. The tech battle grew to include China and Russia with terrifying potential consequences. Metz's epic story dramatically presents the fierce competition among national interests, shareholder value, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the very human concerns about privacy, security, bias, and prejudice. This technology is already guiding our leisure time, our retail choices, our cars, our factories, our markets, and our military weapons. How far will we let it go?