Atlas of Anomalous AI

Book excerpt: Bringing together experts from across the computational and cultural fields to explore the meaning and impact of artificial intelligence on our future, Atlas of AI combines essays, fiction and imagery to tell new stories about the most important innovation of the 21st century. Artificial intelligence is beginning to inhabit everything around us, from the mobile phone to the automobile: its integration into everyday services signals a profound societal shift enabling ever more new possibilities and greater efficiencies. As a result, we increasingly defer our decision-making to machines. Despite the sudden surge in AI's adoption, its history is as curious as it is complex, drawing from many traditions and fields such as mathematics, linguistics, biology, philosophy and computer science. The Atlas of AI bring together these diverse threads in a single volume that charts defining concepts of AI from mind and consciousness through to automation and first contact. Taking the reader on an exploratory adventure through the strange past, present and future of artificial intelligence, the Atlas of AI's diverse range of international contributors narrate what we might imagine artificial intelligence to be in the future, whilst elucidating the myths that have shaped AI today. Bringing together over fifteen leading thinkers and experts from across the scientific, computational and cultural fields, Atlas of AI explores the meaning and impact of artificial intelligence with unprecedented depth and insight. The Atlas of AI draws on the historical organising logic of Aby Warburg's atlas, combining essays, fiction and imagery to tell new stories about the most important innovation of the 21st century. Including contributions from Rana Dasgupta, Benjamin Bratton, Jenna Sutela, Ramon Amaro, Yuk Hui, Noah Raford, Hans Ulrich Obrist and more.