Artificial intelligence (AI) represents the third age of computing development. But, according to Amy Webb, AI’s subtlety makes it insidious. Released in early March, Webb’s book The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans & Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity raises and attempts to answer the most profound questions posed by AI. Webb warns of a dark future if we fail to reckon with the social, political, and economic changes resulting from AI, as well as China’s determination to establish preeminence in it.
Webb has poured a lifetime of researching, writing, and conversing—in a word, thinking—into her masterwork. The Acknowledgements section, where she describes her mentors, conversation partners, and sundry other sources, reveals the breadth of her connections: She has worked for industry; consulted with military and intelligence sources; lived and studied in the United States, Japan, and China; taught at New York University’s Stern School of Business; and lectured widely. But it is her curiosity and courage to face hard problems that distinguishes her work from the growing stack of other books analyzing AI.
