These Strange New Minds

‘Engaging, insightful, panoramic’ Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI & Cofounder of DeepMind

An eye-opening exploration of a revolution unfolding before our eyesNew York Journal of Books

Stunning advances in digital technology have introduced a new wave of human-like AI systems. Chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are already reshaping economies, challenge democracies, and reshaping society in unpredictable ways. And soon, these AI systems could make autonomous decisions on their users behalf, transforming everything we do. Understanding how they work is crucial.

Can AI systems think, know, and understand?

Could they manipulate or deceive you, and if so, what might they make you do?
Whose interests do they represent?
When will they be able to move beyond words and take action in the real world?

Neuroscientist and AI researcher Christopher Summerfield explores these questions, charting AIs evolution from early ideas in the seventeenth century to todays deep neural networks. His book is the most accessible, up-to-date, and authoritative exploration of this radical technology. With an understanding of AIs inner workings, we can address the existential question of our age: can we look forward to a technological utopia, or are we writing ourselves out of history?

‘As a leading authority...Summerfield is perfectly situated to explore the meaning and implications of these machines that are so uncannily like – and unlike – ourselves’ Brian Christian, co-author of Algorithms to Live by

You might choose to be alarmed, excited, or indifferent to LLMs, but you should read Chris’s book before you decide’ Mike Woolridge, author of The Road to Conscious Machines