“Open the pod bay doors, HAL.” “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” HAL 9000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

HAL 9000. Skynet. The Matrix. C3PO and R2D2. Chatbots. Siri. Your refrigerator. DeepL and Google Translate. Duolingo. Nest. Roomba. Facial recognition. Social media recommendations. Navigation apps. Route optimization used by Uber. Predictive search engine queries in your browser. Amazon product recommendations. Job screening software for your CV. Wearable health devices…Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere, but who really understands it and what does it all mean?

Come learn and explore in the Artificial Intelligence book club run by humans. No technical background is needed, just curiosity.

We will explore and progress through this fascinating topic using various themes and combined interdisciplinary reading of non-fiction books and fiction books.

Themes and planned books:

Each theme will be for two meetings, so one meeting we will discuss the non-fiction book and the next meeting we will discuss the paired fiction book.

Theme: AI Intro

October 15: Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell

November  19: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Theme: AI Ethics

December 17: The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian; excerpts from Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future from Ancient Oracles to AI by Carissa Véliz

January 21: Network Effect by Martha Wells

Theme: AI and Society

February 23: Unmasking AI by Joy Buolamwini; Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

March 18: Atlas of AI by Kate Crawford; We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Theme: AI and Government Policy

April 15: The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State by Jill Lepore

May 20: The Ministry for the Future by Kim S. Robinson

Theme: AI and the Future

June 17: Human Compatible by Stuart Russell

July 15: Lifecycle of Software Objects (excerpt from Exhalation) by Ted Chiang