Anything and everything about AI ( Artificial Intelligence) interests me. I read about it. I watch films about it. I am curious about its applications. So, when Henry Kissinger, the former US Secretary of State and a security specialist, co-authors a book on AI with Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman and technical advisor, Google, and Daniel Huttenlocher, inaugural Dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, I expected a cracker of a book. Alas, The Age of AI and our Human Future was not as cutting edge and futuristic as I had expected it to be. It turned out to be a primer on AI, elaborating upon its history and current debates about it. But there was little insight. I wonder why. Or is it that this book is meant to target the lay person who is curious about AI and would like get a snapshot of the terrain. If that is the case, then it works. Otherwise, for readers like me, who are constantly reading about AI, this was a basic read.

Be that as it may, it will be an essential part of institutional libraries, since the three authors are leaders of their fields and collective knowledge shared in this manner may prove to be useful in the future. It is a way of seeing. A direction.

3 Feb 2022