These Strange New Minds

How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means

By: Christopher Summerfield

Narrated by: Rufus Wright

An insider look at the Large Language Models (LLMs) that are revolutionizing our relationship to technology, exploring their surprising history, what they can and should do for us today, and where they will go in the future—from an AI pioneer and neuroscientist

In this accessible, up-to-date, and authoritative examination of the world’s most radical technology, neuroscientist and AI researcher Christopher Summerfield explores what it really takes to build a brain from scratch. We have entered a world in which disarmingly human-like chatbots, such as ChatGPT, Claude and Bard, appear to be able to talk and reason like us - and are beginning to transform everything we do. But can AI ‘think’, 'know' and ‘understand’? What are its values? Whose biases is it perpetuating? Can it lie and if so, could we tell? Does their arrival threaten our very existence?

These Strange New Minds charts the evolution of intelligent talking machines and provides us with the tools to understand how they work and how we can use them. Ultimately, armed with an understanding of AI’s mysterious inner workings, we can begin to grapple with the existential question of our age: have we written ourselves out of history or is a technological utopia ahead?

Great review other than woke Blindspot.

The author makes an excellent survey of recent AI tools and developments, but thinks that 47 story 9/11 buildings fall at gravitational speed without assistance.

Excellent Perspective to AI

Well researched book that gives a good level headed perspective to the current AI models, LLMs. The research isn't very eye popping, but for the subject matter of AI it does stand out. The author does a very good job in putting the market into perspective with a good foundation of research. Very informative. Good overall book if interested in the subject of AI and LLMs.

very good book and very good narrator.

the book has lots of good background information in how an llm works and how we arrived at that knowledge. very informative and adds a lot of scope to your understanding of current AI models. well worth the price.