Kai-Fu Lee, a leading AI expert and bestselling author, shares insights into the transformative potential and challenges of AI over the next two decades. He discusses his imaginative book, co-written with novelist Chen Qiufan, which envisions AI's impact on human life. Their scenarios range from teenage romances disrupted by technology to the existential threats posed by advanced AI. Lee emphasizes the ethical implications of AI, urging for transparency and a focus on user well-being, while also highlighting AI's revolutionary role in healthcare and climate action.
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Overestimating AI
Kai-Fu Lee consistently overestimated short-term AI progress.
He predicted speech recognition breakthroughs in five years, but it took much longer.
insights INSIGHT
AI as a Platform
AI platforms like electricity and the internet enable numerous inventions.
They differ from single-purpose inventions like elevators or typewriters.
insights INSIGHT
Deep Learning
Deep learning, a subset of machine learning, uses neural networks.
It improves with more data and can personalize user experiences.
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In this book, Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan imagine the world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. The book combines speculative storytelling and scientific analysis to introduce readers to various AI technologies such as deep learning, mixed reality, robotics, artificial general intelligence, and autonomous weapons. It explores the potential benefits and harms of these technologies and their impact on daily life, including topics like autonomous vehicles, deepfake videos, augmented reality, job loss, and the implementation of Universal Basic Income.
Kai-Fu Lee is one of the world’s leading AI experts and a bestselling author. He founded Microsoft Asia’s research lab that has trained CTOs and AI heads at Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba and Huawei. As President of Google China he helped establish the company in the Chinese market. And now, as CEO of Sinovation Ventures, he is investing in China’s high-tech sector, giving him a unique perspective on how AI is set to change our world over the next 20 years. On September 22 Lee came to Intelligence Squared to explain how AI is at an inflection point and urged us to wake up to its radiant possibilities as well as to the existential threats it poses to life as we know it. In conversation with Kamal Ahmed, former Editorial Director of the BBC, he discussed his new work of ‘scientific fiction’, AI 2041, co-authored with the celebrated novelist Chen Qiufan. The book offers up eye-opening scenarios of our techno-future – from a teenage girl’s rebellion when AI gets in the way of romance to a rogue quantum computer scientist’s revenge plot that imperils the world. To buy his new book AI 2041 with the Intelligence Squared discount click here: https://www.primrosehillbooks.com/product/ai-2041-ten-visions-for-our-future-kai-fu-lee-chen-qiufan/