AI 2041

Ten Visions for Our Future

By: Kai-Fu Lee, Chen Qiufan

Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Justin Chien, Soneela Nankani, Mirron Willis, Emily Woo Zeller, Siho Ellsmore, Fajer Al-Kaisi

Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

How will artificial intelligence change our world within 20 years?

A Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Financial Times Best Book of the Year

“This inspired collaboration between a pioneering technologist and a visionary writer of science fiction offers bold and urgent insights.” (Yann LeCun, winner of the Turing Award; chief AI scientist, Facebook)

“Amazingly entertaining. ... Lee and Chen take us on an immersive trip through the future. ... Eye-opening.” (Mark Cuban)

AI will be the defining development of the 21st century. Within two decades, aspects of daily human life will be unrecognizable. AI will generate unprecedented wealth, revolutionize medicine and education through human-machine symbiosis, and create brand-new forms of communication and entertainment. In liberating us from routine work, however, AI will also challenge the organizing principles of our economic and social order. Meanwhile, AI will bring new risks in the form of autonomous weapons and smart technology that inherit human bias. AI is at a tipping point, and people need to wake up - both to AI’s radiant pathways and its existential perils for life as we know it.

In this provocative, utterly original work, Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China and best-selling author of AI Superpowers, teams up with celebrated novelist Chen Qiufan to imagine our world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. In 10 gripping short stories, they introduce listeners to an array of eye-opening 2041 settings, such as:

• In San Francisco, the “job reallocation” industry emerges as deep learning AI causes widespread job displacement.
• In Tokyo, a music fan is swept up in an immersive form of celebrity worship based on virtual reality and mixed reality.
• In Mumbai, a teenage girl rebels when AI’s crunching of big data gets in the way of romance.
• In Seoul, virtual companions with perfected natural language processing (NLP) skills offer orphaned twins new ways to connect.
• In Munich, a rogue scientist draws on quantum computing, computer vision, and other AI technologies in a revenge plot that imperils the world.

By gazing toward a not-so-distant horizon, AI 2041 offers urgent insights into our collective future - while reminding listeners that, ultimately, humankind remains the author of its destiny.

©2021 Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“An invaluable and entertaining vision of the future.” (Ray Dalio, number-one New York Times best-selling author of Principles)

“To say that AI 2041 is enlightening and valuable, is to understate its significance. ... AI 2041’s scientific fiction gives us a way to open our eyes to what is actually going on all around us and where things are heading.” (John Kao, Forbes)

“By blending imaginative storytelling and technical expertise, Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan bring to life a vision for AI that addresses both our curiosity and our fears. Read this captivating book to better understand how and when certain technologies are likely to mature, and what that could mean for all of us.” (Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft)

Great book!!!!

So insightful and thought provoking!! a very interesting approach in telling fictional stories around potentially factual events.

Performances were ok. Writing, meh.

Always a challenge to combine ‘lessons’ and fiction without the latter suffering. Story writing with an agenda, and then a follow-on class for each story to make sure you got the point. Some good tidbits, Maybe in print so you could better speed/skip through it.

Boring stories but good content

The content of the evaluation of AÍ capabilities is interesting... But the stories are so boring it made me skip most of them... Waste of my time listening to them. And some of the narrators don't help either...

DARING, INFORMATIVE AND ENTERTAINING!

This book is extremely unique in the way it combines cutting edge / future AI technology with entertaining science fiction writing. There are 10 fictional short stories set in the year 2041, with accompanying analysis explaining the current and future development of the technologies which form part of the story. The stories are really creative and some had me riveted to learn what would happen. Many topics are covered, including autonomous vehicles, deep fakes, AI assistants, autonomous weapons, and data privacy. I especially appreciate how the authors included other dimensions of the various technologies, above and beyond the purely technical capabilities / requirements. For example, in the chapter on job loss / placement relating to AI, the issues of UBI, the non-financial aspects of work and some of the political considerations were highlighted. But most of all, the authors were daring in their effort to combine a vision of what AI might look like in 2041 with the technical analysis provided by one of the leading authorities in AI. It was because of this combination and how the authors pulled it off that my overall rating is a 5. Bravo!

pie in the sky

oh wow. I had hoped for better. The stories are entertaining. The Arthur theorizes that a entire change in our economic system will be necessary. Left out are the foreigns of humanity. it's worth the read if you don't expect too much.

Open Political Agenda

Very interesting concept, and I appreciate the perspectives on the technology. But I kept rolling my eyes about clumsy attempts to shoehorn in current social hot topics like gender, politics, and social injustice. Rather than feeling natural to the stories, they felt like pandering elements required to check off a “I think right” checklist instead of pushing toward deeper introspection of complex issues. It left the after taste of Silicon Valley navel gazing.

EDGE 2023 and the AI Future

Attending EDGE 2023 in Niskayuna NY and I now firmly believe that 2041 will happen by 2035! Listening to talks here by some of the brightest minds and vendors! L1-3 on autonomous vehicles, an NPO that handles data, alternative currencies and the list goes on! This book will require version’s every two years! I highly recommend it

Great insight, cheesy stories.

His views on current and projected AI capabilities was fascinating. To some degree his use of narrative, the stories, enhanced his point. In general the stories sounded like they were written by writer in need of new career or businesses student taking a creative writing course. I ended up skipping the last 4 and listening to the insights.

Creative way to explain ai capabilities but…

Not sure it worked well though. I find myself focusing on just the explanations which is worth 4 stars in and of itself as a stand-alone book. I suppose the stories could be a little bit better.

Just skip to 30 min analysis at the end

The end analysis composed of the analysis part of the very last chapter is all that is worth while even if far too dismissive of the rate of change.
The rest of the book seems like propaganda meant to keep people asleep.