Eight legs good, two legs bad?

摘要

For decades, we have been accustomed to reading books on Artificial Intelligence where the future potential is highlighted, with immediate objectives including securing funding for the next stages of research and development. Today the balance has changed: a number of major technology companies have invested large sums in AI and have announced ambitious plans. Now we can read expressions of caution from academics, who may fear that development programmes, with great expectations, are not always underpinned by sound understanding. The three books under review go a stage further and offer a new set of issues for ongoing widespread international debate. AI is thereby rescued from commercialism and can be seen as a set of contested issues which merit wide discussion.