"A highly human exploration of artificial intelligence, its exciting possibilities and inherent limits." --Max Levchin, cofounder of PayPal, CEO of Affirm, and Silicon Valley angel investor
Garry Kasparov's 1997 chess match against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue was a watershed moment in the history of technology. It was the dawn of a new era in artificial intelligence: a machine capable of beating the reigning human champion at this most cerebral game.
That moment was more than a century in the making, and in this breakthrough book, Kasparov reveals his astonishing side of the story for the first time. He describes how it felt to strategize against an implacable, untiring opponent with the whole world watching, and recounts the history of machine intelligence through the microcosm of chess, considered by generations of scientific pioneers to be a key to unlocking the secrets of human and machine cognition. Kasparov uses his unrivaled experience to look into the future of intelligent machines and sees it bright with possibility. As many critics decry artificial intelligence as a menace, particularly to human jobs, Kasparov shows how humanity can rise to new heights with the help of our most extraordinary creations, rather than fear them. Deep Thinking is a tightly argued case for technological progress, from the man who stood at its precipice with his own career at stake.
Even as the view of America as a rogue state consolidates abroad, American's appear largely bystanders at the spectacle of their government running amok. People forget the myriad instances of their government's flouting of the Constitution and international legal norms. If ever they were aware of them in the first place, accepting to live in the increasingly pernicious new normal, with little protest. This remarkable anthology of columns documents and reminds us of the extraordinary developments that, in their accumulation, have led to the destruction of accountable and moral government in the US. Few American commentators have cut more clearly through the deepening deceit, hypocrisy and outright criminality that has infested official Washington since 9/11 than Paul Craig Roberts. His scathing critique sheds much-needed light on the country's impending nightmare: economic collapse, internal repression, ongoing wars, and rising rejection by friends and foes alike.