These Strange New Minds

How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means

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These Strange New Minds

By: Christopher Summerfield

Narrated by: Rufus Wright

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

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 AI's evolution from early ideas in the seventeenth century to today's deep neural networks. His book is the most accessible, up-to-date, and authoritative exploration of this radical technology. With an understanding of AI's 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?

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

'An eye-opening exploration of a revolution unfolding before our eyes' New York Journal of Books

‘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

©2024 Christopher Summerfield (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Computer Science

Future Studies

History & Culture

Machine Theory & Artificial Intelligence

Social Sciences

Technology & Society

Technology

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Critic reviews

A brilliant guide to the most important technology of our times (Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI & Cofounder of DeepMind)

By far the best guide to a newly emerging species with which we will share the planet for the foreseeable future (Stuart Russell, author of Human Compatible)

As a leading authority in both computational neuroscience and the social impacts of AI, Christopher 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)

Summerfield takes us on a tour of this astonishing new technolog - general purpose AI - and helps us to understand the issues it raises. You might choose to be alarmed, excited, or indifferent to large language models but you should read Chris’s book before you decide (Mike Woolridge, author of The Road to Conscious Machines)

With clarity, insight and wit, Summerfield dives beneath the ever-breaking wave of large language models to reveal the deeper principles at play, and the challenges and opportunities that these powerful new technologies present. An essential and highly readable guide to thinking abut how, and weather, computers can think, what's coming next and what we should do about it (Anil Seth, author of Being You)

'A closeup look at the large language models that have radically changed computer technology...a clear-minded, accessible examination of how AI systems work'

For readers fascinated by the future of AI, this book is an eye-opening exploration of a revolution unfolding before our eyes

Summerfield, a neuroscientist at Oxford, charts the evolution of artificial intelligence, from early large language models to today’s ChatGPT, and reflects on the larger questions of learning and
consciousness

Most relevant

”This critique examines both the book’s strengths—particularly its clarity in explaining complex AI concepts and Summerfield’s unique neuroscientific perspective—as well as its potential limitations, including the challenge of writing about rapidly evolving technology and the depth of philosophical engagement.
The book offers a compelling exploration of large language models and argues that AI chatbots represent more than mere mimicry, drawing on Summerfield’s background as a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience to examine both the parallels and differences between biological and artificial minds.”

The above was written by an AI. I asked Claude to write a short critique of the book and I largely agree with it. As it correctly hints, the field of AI is progressing so rapidly that any book written on the subject is bound to be somewhat out of date by the time that is published. Nevertheless, I give the book full marks in helping me understand how LLMs work, and their limitations. I now have some understanding of why they occasionally get an apparently simple task spectacularly wrong. With its exploration of language and neuroscience, I found this a very interesting listen.

A good introduction to LLMs

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A fascinating, accessible and erudite look at the history, present and future of large language models and AI. A must read for anyone with any interest about how technology has shaped the modern world who wants to learn more about AI, how it works, and what that might mean for humanity.

We no longer ‘own’ language

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Maybe I missed the point of this book. it was suggested to me as part of a reading path by ChatGPT, as an up to date book on developments in AI. But actually its just rambling and irrelevant to AI and LLMs from start to finish. I kept waiting for it to get on subject but it never happens. So unless you're looking for a huge collection of mostly unconnected trivia about India's General Election to the brains of fruit flies to the invention of writing on blocks of stone, I wouldn't recommend this.

Who is this book for?

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