Book SummaryScary Smart, by Mo Gawdat

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Scary Smart

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be smarter than humans and better than humans at basically everything—including risking everything to gain power. That anxiety-inducing warning comes courtesy of Mo Gawdat, a former Google X executive who writes in Scary Smart (2021) that artificial intelligence has learned everything it knows from us and the often selfish ways we behave. Gawdat contends that if we let artificial intelligence develop on the path it’s following right now, that path will carry us toward the dystopia science fiction writers have speculated about for decades, and it will all be our fault.

But Gawdat pairs that sobering warning with a more optimistic prediction: We still have time to change where we end up. He explains that we can’t stop the progress of artificial intelligence. Instead, we’ll have to change how we think about and interact with machines to shape them into something that’s better for us and for the world. To have any chance of accomplishing that goal, Gawdat believes we’ll need to do no less than reimagine our relationships with our fellow humans (and with all...

Scary Smart Summary How Does Artificial Intelligence Compare to Human Intelligence?

Throughout the book, Gawdat refers to artificial intelligence as “scary smart.” To understand why, we’ll start by examining what makes artificial intelligence—which broadly refers to machines that can mimic aspects of human thinking, learning, and intelligence—so smart. Gawdat explains that he and other experts expect future forms of AI to have superhuman levels of intelligence and to gain human qualities like a sense of consciousness and a full range of emotions. In the following section, we’ll explore each of these, along with the technological innovations that could make them possible.

(Shortform note: What is AI, exactly? Experts say there isn’t just one definition, though many think that’s good because it gives the field room to evolve. That said, you can think of AI—which enables computers to think like humans and do things that require “intelligence”—as existing on a spectrum. Consider the software that enables you to talk to Siri on your iPhone or the model...

Scary Smart Summary What’s the Problem With Artificial Intelligence?

Here’s where things get “scary.” Gawdat predicts two potential outcomes of building AI that surpasses us in intelligence: Superintelligent AI can either help us build a utopia where we’ve found solutions for our world’s biggest problems—poverty, hunger, war, and crime—or shape our world into a dystopia. Sci-fi writers have long imagined bleak futures where AI tries to subjugate or exterminate humans. But Gawdat predicts that things will go wrong in slightly less dramatic but potentially more insidious ways in the near future—no killer robots needed. In this section, we’ll look at three problems Gawdat thinks are unavoidable.

People With Bad Intentions Will Task AI With Projects That Hurt Others

The first problem we’ll run into with superintelligent AI might also be the most predictable. Gawdat contends that as AI becomes more advanced, people with selfish intentions will use AI to make money and gain power. They’ll put it to work to sell products, control markets, commit acts of cyberterrorism, spread fake content and disinformation, influence public opinion, manipulate political systems, invade others’ privacy, hack government data, and build weapons.

Gawdat...

Scary Smart Summary Why Can’t We Control or Contain AI?

If experts expect AI to create these dystopian scenarios or others, then why can’t we just put the brakes on further development? Gawdat explains that we’ve reached a point of no return, and we can’t stop these outcomes (and others like them) from occurring. He points out that superintelligent AI won’t just be a tool we’ve built: It will be an intelligent being that can learn, think, and decide just like we can. That means that we can’t control artificially intelligent systems in the same way that we can control more traditional computer programs—a scary thought if you’ve ever watched a film like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

(Shortform note: In predicting that specific outcomes of AI development are inevitable, Gawdat engages in what some call “technological determinism.” This involves arguing that if we build a technology like AI that’s smarter than humans, then the changes we envision it making to our culture are a foregone conclusion, good or bad. It’s equally deterministic to promise that social media will make the world “[more open and...

Scary Smart Summary What Should We Do to Change Course?

To teach AI to value the right things and put it on the path toward making the world a better place for everyone, we have to teach AI to want what’s best for humans. Gawdat contends that the best way to do that is to learn to see ourselves as parents who need to teach a brilliant child to navigate the world with integrity. Gawdat argues that to change course, we need to change three things: what we task AI with doing, what we teach machines about what it means to be human, and how we treat nonhuman intelligence. We’ll explore each of these next.

Give AI Tasks That Improve the World

Gawdat explains that today, AI is often tasked with projects that further the projects of capitalism and imperialism, like helping us make as much money as possible, enabling us to surveil each other, and creating weapons that our governments use to antagonize each other. Instead of accepting that a minority of people want to use AI for morally wrong (or questionable) ends, we need to task AI with projects that do good and make the world a better place.

In the future, AI will have an unprecedented ability to find solutions to problems that seem intractable, so we should put it to work....

Shortform Exercise: What Are You Teaching AI About Humans?

Gawdat emphasizes throughout Scary Smart that artificial intelligence is constantly learning from what we say and what we do. But what, exactly, are you teaching AI about what it means to be human?

Think about something you recently did online, and write it down here. (Perhaps you spent 20 minutes looking for the perfect recipe to cook your family dinner—or maybe you spent 20 minutes doomscrolling through news stories about everything that’s going wrong in the world.)