A Year of Reading: What If? (book vs machine) - reviewed by Katherine Roberts
My reading has taken a slightly different path this autumn, thanks to the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence. Last month, Machines That Think (part of the New Scientist Expert series) rather blew my mind, despite being published 10 years ago. Since then, AIs have become more sophisticated and even more data hungry, resulting in a class action by authors against Anthropic in the US claiming their copyrights were violated. Similar questions are being asked by the music business, as highlighted in a recent Radio 3 programme The Artificial Composer . AI is also active in other creative industries, such as the art world and video games. It seems creative professionals the world over are in danger of being reduced to hobbyists, helping to train the very AI tools that will enable everyone else to become an instant author or composer, visual artist or video game creator. How did this happen without us noticing? Let me take you back to fiction's favourite prompt: What If? and a bo...