Neil D. Lawrence’s The Atomic Human is a brilliant technological and philosophical tour de force by one of the world’s foremost authorities on AI and machine learning. Anyone interested in the great promise and potential dangers of AI and machine learning would do well to read this book. The Atomic Human is at once fascinating, entertaining, and a deeply serious study on the most consequential emerging technologies humans have ever developed. Lawrence has plenty of computer science laced through the book, but he makes it understandable to the non-specialist by historical examples and analogy. It is also a book of ethics and philosophy that argues we must always ensure machines and AI are viewed and used as tools to assist humans, and we must never concede control of fundamental decisions of great consequence. A great book by an obviously brilliant author.”
—General Mark A. Milley, former chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff
“The Atomic Human is a brilliantly panoramic celebration of the vast expanses of human cognition as well as the ingenious, flawed, and often bizarre attempts to replicate it artificially. Refusing easy answers, Lawrence cuts a huge swath across the history of computation with passion, erudition, skepticism, and hope. Cognition, he shows us repeatedly, is not an abstract formula but an impossibly eclectic phenomenon that manifests differently in myriad contexts. From amoebae to the brain to information theory, from Isaac Newton to Alan Turing to ChatGPT, Lawrence shows our approximations of the mind leave out as much as they leave in. He reminds us of the plumbed and unplumbed depths of what is really at stake and the unexpected consequences that will accompany the increased integration of society and technology, the uncontrolled behemoth he calls System Zero. What he demonstrates is more relevant and more urgent than most supposed metrics of AI’s capabilities today.”
—David Auerbach, author of Meganets and Bitwise
“Lawrence is one of the world’s foremost authorities on AI and one of the few who has deployed AI in large-scale industrial systems. He is also a rare technical leader who understands AI as part of a long evolution of human beings interacting with other intelligences in a cognitive landscape. In this thoughtful and engaging book—ranging from James Watt’s steam engines to World War II gunners and the Apollo lunar landings—Lawrence shows what’s novel and what’s human about AI. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand AI’s place in our world and how to harness it for human flourishing.”
—David A. Mindell, Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing, MIT
“In the wide-ranging intellectual sweep of The Atomic Human, Lawrence invites the public to understand and contrast human and machine intelligence and what AI means for society, effortlessly bridging C. P. Snow’s ‘two cultures’ with lucid, accessible explanations of mathematics and computer science and resonant human and cultural stories from Democritus to Ernest Hemingway.”
—Dr. Jean Innes, CEO, Alan Turing Institute
“This is an utterly absorbing account of humans, computers, and how much they differ. It explains why AI cannot substitute for human intelligence even as machine intelligence poses enormous challenges for how information is used and societies are organized.”
—Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge
“This is a book for anyone and everyone interested in what makes humans different from machines by one of the world’s experts in AI research. Understanding our differences more may help us live in harmony alongside very intelligent machines, so that we can worry less about existential threats and more about how we work with intelligent machines to make the world a better place.”
—Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton
“The Atomic Human concludes that whatever AI becomes, and whether or not it ultimately poses a threat to our species, it will never replicate or penetrate the essence of what it means to be human.”
—Matthew Syed, Sunday Times
2024-05-25
A respected expert in the field argues that AI systems are powerful tools, but it takes a human mind to deal with life’s complexity.
Debates over AI often devolve into advocates insisting that it is the cure for all social ills and opponents arguing that the technology constitutes an existential threat to society. Lawrence avoids the either/or paradigm, and he certainly has the experience to paint a more nuanced picture: He is currently a professor of machine learning at Cambridge, and he previously served as the director of machine learning at Amazon. The author’s chief concern is that AI systems could eventually take over human decision-making, although ultimately they are in the hands of massive companies seeking profit. However, AI is inherently unable to collate crucial information with sufficient subtlety, vision, and even intuition. One of the author’s comparisons is Eisenhower’s decision to launch the D-Day invasion: “Eisenhower didn’t have complete information, he only had ‘the best information available.’ His decision required judgement: at the time he made it he knew he could be wrong, and being wrong would have dreadful consequences for thousands of soldiers and the long-term course of the war. Judgements of this form remained firmly the preserve of the human.” Lawrence advances a host of important arguments, but he repeatedly drifts away from his theme. The text sometimes feels like a stew of cultural references, as the author discusses novels, poems, and historical events that have little discernible connection to AI issues. The digressions and references make the narrative difficult to follow. The book would have been much improved by a strong editorial hand to keep the author on mission and create a shorter, more focused work.
Lawrence is a major figure in the AI landscape, but his book is marred by a lack of discipline and narrative organization.
