A great way to jump into AI and get to know what's actually going on, rather than just listening to people with no experience or knowledge. The book helps you understand the pace of progress of technology, and what you can reasonably expect, what's already been achieved, and the possible risks and rewards ahead of us. The author goes off into some ideas about space travel and harnessing energy that feel more like the subject of another book, say on physics, space travel or the future of energy, but he eventually pulls them all back to relate to AI and what the significance of knowledge and thought might be.

The author is a founder of an organization that wants to push for the safe development of AI, and you can feel that throughout the book. He discusses fatalities that have already occurred, as well as the good and bad that may come from a future with strong AI. You'll see that in many cases, even if AI isn't perfect, it would likely be a better option than people for a lot of work. We make a lot of mistakes, a lot of deadly mistakes.

Max Tegmark discounts AI consciousness, favoring motivation and goals, in a way that sounds exactly like what you'd expect to hear from a behavioral psychologist. He later loops back to a perspective that seems to appreciate the dangers of consciousness, without changing any earlier statements. He occasionally suggests that a belief in God is primitive and ignorant. I don't appreciate this view, and don't think it's a seriously intelligent way to discuss a difference of view. To me it's also ironic that you can see a future where AI is made in man's image, able to learn and adapt and create, but you can't imagine a creator having done the same with us.

Overall a really great read that will increase your knowledge of AI, energy and space travel and communications a lot, if you haven't been deeply into these subjects at a university level.