Rule of the Robots

"If you have a smartphone, you have AI in your pocket. It's everywhere online. And it has already changed how doctors diagnose disease as well as how you interact with friends or read the news. But In Rule of the Robots, Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur Martin Ford argues that true disruption is yet to come, as AI ceases to be a tool applied to specific problems, and becomes a utility: the industrial foundation upon which practically all activity-personal, economic, and political-is based. Ford calls it an "electricity of intelligence." Not so long ago, running a machine required animals, or access to water, and was completely unportable. Electricity turned power into a utility-something cheap and omnipresent. The change enabled us to do work wherever we wanted, and it radically altered every aspect of life, from our diets to our jobs to our entertainment. In Rule of the Robots, Ford shows how AI-heretofore as specialized as a water mill was 200 years ago-is breaking free from its bonds, becoming as ubiquitous and simple to use as a power jack and an extension cord. No one would begin any enterprise, no matter how minor, without power or running water. Ford argues the same will go