Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I knew I was reading the wrong book when the author breathlessly describes the terror that an AI "1,000 Times Smarter than Stephen King" could bring to bear on humanity. If THAT'S the extent of AI's intelligence, I'm no longer concerned! ha. Don't misunderstand, I am in complete agreement that artificial general intelligence (AGI) definitely poses an existential threat to mankind. It could conceivable mean the end of our species. But if you're looking for a thoughtful, scientific analysis of the threat and how it may manifest itself, this is not the place to find it. As a Cognitive Scientist with some experience coding AI, I expected a lot more from this book. However, being writen by a documentary filmmaker, it simply can't overcome the author's lack of knowledge or understanding of the subject. It is basically a series of magazine articles wherein the author interviews "experts" in the field and basks wide-eyed in their splendor, all the while not really understanding what they are saying. Barrat doesn't understand that there is no scientific way to quantify "1,000 times smarter" than a human. He predicts that the entire human brain will be mapped and understood in the next year or two (wildly inaccurate). This demonstrates a juvenile and shallow mental model of intelligence. The brain is incredibly more complex and difficult to understand or model than Barrat realizes. He also fails to make convincing arguments for exaclty HOW the AGI will manifest embodied cognition (i.e. exist in a mobile physical state such as a body) so that it can replicate itself, acquire resources, and dominate mankind. Ultimately, when the author says he "fears" that this and that will happen, I have to ask: "Why should I care what you fear? - you don't seem to understand the issue!"