Author Interview: Charles Jennings

Entrepreneur and author Charles Jennings wants to help non-techies understand artificial intelligence (AI). His new book, Artificial Intelligence: Rise of the Lightspeed Learners is a short and fascinating introduction to how AI affects our lives today and what's in store for the future.

Charles recently talked with Rose City Reader about AI, his new book, and strategies for controlling this brave new technology.

Can you explain for those not in the field what Artificial Intelligence is and what you mean by “Lightspeed Learners”?

Artificial Intelligence, now generally known as AI, is self-learning software. Which means, basically, it has a mind of its own. (The term “artificial intelligence” emerged at a 1956 conference and stuck, but the more you discover about it, the more you realize there is nothing artificial about this intelligence.)

According to Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Sam Harris, Internet inventor Vint Cerf and many other contemporary high-tech thinkers, AI is the most important technology in human history. Think of AIs as a new intelligent species that has just popped up in our ecosystem. Like dolphins or orangutans, only smarter.

I coined the term Lightspeed Learners to highlight what is both most unique and most important about AIs: they leverage our massively connected global infrastructure to learn very, very quickly. Today, this learning occurs inside narrow swim lanes; tomorrow, who knows?

What is your work background? How did it lead you to writing your book?

I’ve been both an entrepreneur and a writer all my life. In 1992, I started my first tech company, which in 1999 had a welcome IPO; in 2014, I started my (probably) last company, an AI startup partnered with Caltech/JPL. What I learned, 2014–17 as a CEO in the AI industry, made me want to sound alarm bells. Hence this book.

Why did you write Artificial Intelligence: Rise of the Lightspeed Learners?

First, speaking as a writer, AI is a great story. So it’s fun to write about. Second, I’m convinced that the more Americans know and understand about AI, the better. So I gave myself the challenge of explaining AI through stories, and by examining AI’s big existential questions at the level of a good Trevor Noah Show.

Who is the audience for your book?

Book readers and audiobook listeners who like good stories, are curious in general, care about the future of humanity, and are not afraid of a few basic tech terms.

What do you think is the best thing AI will bring to our future?

A deeper appreciation of what it means to be human.

What is the biggest risk AI poses for our future?

Short term, AI war. We need an International Atomic Energy Commission type treaty between U.S. and China on AI yesterday, controlling the use of AI by warfighters. Longer term—say by 2030—AIs will literally be beyond human control. The threat won’t be Skynet. It’ll be the electric grid with an AI brain who, in a crisis, takes matters into its own hands. We’ll need sophisticated international AI control strategies by 2030—which means we need to start working now!

Can you recommend additional books or resources for people who want to learn more about AI?

We’re in the midst now of a massive AI information tsunami. If you read nothing else on AI in the next year, read the first 60 pages of MIT professor Max Tegmark’s book, Life 3.0. To learn more about AI science and technology, there is no better source than any Andrew Ng video on YouTube (Stanford professor and founder of Google Brain). And Elon Musk on AI is always worth a listen.

What did you learn from writing your book that most surprised you?

Great question…easy answer. While researching the book, I came across a scientific paper signed by 51 legitimate AI scientific researchers, most working in big tech companies, asserting that the most common result of AI research is surprise. AIs doing the unexpected, solving problems well outside the box. I write about this paper extensively in Chapter 3 of my book.

What’s next for you?

I’m promoting my audiobook, which I think is better than the print version, frankly; and writing op eds and blog posts on the role of AI in society—with a special focus on the 2020 election.

THANKS CHARLES!

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: RISE OF THE LIGHTSPEED LEARNERS IS AVAILABLE ONLINE IN PRINT, KINDLE, OR AUDIOBOOK, OR ASK YOUR LOCAL BOOK SELLER TO ORDER IT. 

Book Beginnings: At the Narrow Waist of the World: A Memoir by Marlena Maduro Baraf

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS
THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

In the 1950s the country of Panama was small – about 750,000 people. We lived in the capital city and knew everyone who was white and the people surrounding our lives who were darker, un café-con-leche mix tipico de Panama.

-- At the Narrow Waist of the World: A Memoir by Marlena Maduro Baraf. Marlena grew up in a large, extended Jewish family in Catholic Panama of the 1950s and 1060s, then moved to the US in her late teens.

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING





TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

Our sinagoga Kol Shearith Isreal is a long rectangle with stucco walls and a turret in the middle. . . . There is a minyan every Friday night, the required ten men for public worship.

Teaser Tuesday: Grit and Ink: An Oregon Family’s Adventures in Newspapering, 1908–2018 by William F. Willingham

Pendleton in the early 1880s exemplified a cinematic image of the Wild West. Almost every issue of the EO told of fist fights, pistol whipping, knife fights, racing horses on the major streets.

-- Grit and Ink: An Oregon Family’s Adventures in Newspapering, 1908–2018 by William F. Willingham, with a Preface by Stephen A. Forrester and a Forward by R. Gregory Nokes.

Grit and Ink is the history of the East Oregonian Publishing Company, an independent newspaper company that has been publishing across Oregon for close to 140 years. The history is still living -- the company was in the news today for outbidding two national newspaper chains to buy The Bulletin in Bend, and the weekly Redmond Spokesman.

Grit and Ink is a great read for anyone interested in the newspaper business, local journalism, or Oregon history.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: July Books

For the last Mailbox Monday in July, I have a last stack of red, white, and blue books, thanks to a trip to Booktique, one of my favorite Friends of the Library stores.

Fellowship of Fear by Aaron Elkins. This is the first in Elkin's series features forensic anthropologist-detective Gideon Oliver. He won the 1988 Edgar Award for Old Bones, the fourth book in the series.

The Men and the Girls by Joanna Trollope. This early Trollope novel is hard to find -- I'm glad I did!

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. Ward won her second National Book Award for this one. I'm trying to read all the National winners and usually read them with my ears, but the waitlist for the audiobook from my library is really long, so now I have this as a backup.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson. I'll read anything Atkinson writes. But I am really looking forward to the new Jackson Brodie book coming out later this year.

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne. I've never read a book by Boyne, but this sounded reayy good, so I got it on a whim.

What looks good to you? What books came into your house last week?

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

Book Beginnings: Artificial Intelligence: Rise of the Lightspeed Learners by Charles Jennings.

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS
THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

After decades of academic activity, AIs have escaped their lab cages and are swarming out into the real world. With consequences for all of us.

Artificial Intelligence: Rise of the Lightspeed Learners by Charles Jennings. This new book about AI is written for a general audiences. It is short and mesmerizing.

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

Transportation, as far as I can tell, is one sector where the benefits of AI far outweigh the risks. In our new AI world, there will be autonomous drones – and smart ones.