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  • Life 3.0

  • Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
  • Written by: Max Tegmark
  • Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
  • Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (351 ratings)

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Life 3.0

Written by: Max Tegmark
Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
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Publisher's Summary

How will artificial intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society, and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology - and there's nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who's helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial.

How can we grow our prosperity through automation without leaving people lacking income or purpose? What career advice should we give today's kids? How can we make future AI systems more robust so that they do what we want without crashing, malfunctioning, or getting hacked? Should we fear an arms race in lethal autonomous weapons? Will machines eventually outsmart us at all tasks, replacing humans on the job market and perhaps altogether? Will AI help life flourish like never before or give us more power than we can handle?

What sort of future do you want? This book empowers you to join what may be the most important conversation of our time. It doesn't shy away from the full range of viewpoints or from the most controversial issues - from superintelligence to meaning, consciousness, and the ultimate physical limits on life in the cosmos.

©2017 Max Tegmark (P)2017 Random House Audio

What the critics say

"This is a compelling guide to the challenges and choices in our quest for a great future of life, intelligence and consciousness - on Earth and beyond." (Elon Musk, founder, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX and cofounder and CEO of Tesla Motors)
"All of us - not only scientists, industrialists and generals - should ask ourselves what can we do now to improve the chances of reaping the benefits of future AI and avoiding the risks. This is the most important conversation of our time, and Tegmark's thought-provoking book will help you join it." (Professor Stephen Hawking, director of research, Cambridge Centre for Theoretical Cosmology)
"Tegmark's new book is a deeply thoughtful guide to the most important conversation of our time, about how to create a benevolent future civilization as we merge our biological thinking with an even greater intelligence of our own creation." (Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author, and futurist, author of The Singularity Is Near and How to Create a Mind)

What listeners say about Life 3.0

Average Customer Ratings
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

This performance bit is driving me crazy

1) It's "h tee tee pee colon slash slash" not "h tee tee pee colon backslash backslash" - how do the voice over artist and editors not know the difference between a slash and a backslash?

2) The last time I heard someone make the mistake of including the protocol (http://) in a URL when verbally referring to a URL was in the 90s.

It might be helpful to find someone a little more in touch with technology to voice such a technology-heavy book.

7 people found this helpful

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Fantastic

One of the best books out there in AI and the future of machine intelligence. Hugely helpful in this format is the stellar narration by Rob Shapiro. Similarly important books like Superintelligence and The Singularity is Near were so poorly narrates that I found them impossible to get through. Great job.

3 people found this helpful

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listen to it!! relevant for all of our future.

great story. really smart. sometimes feels like it is In a fantastic place. like he's a quack or in a super realistic, sort fantastic possibility. both negative and positive

2 people found this helpful

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Truly fascinating

Absolutely fascinating read, a truly intelligent look at the future of AI. This is very compelling hosting a variety of topics that make you think and question the future of AI.

2 people found this helpful

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Just great !

Opened my mind about AI and how our future is going to look like. Love it

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Overall an awesome AudioBook!

Starting with the negatives, sometimes the book felt a little redundant as some points seemed obvious after others were already stated. Or in some cases things were straight up stated multiple times.

That said, overall I found the subject matter very fascinating, and also pretty damn worrisome for the future of mankind. But in all honesty, it's been worrying since before listening to this AudioBook, so that's nothing new.

Definitely recommend. It's a book for everyone and anyone curious about what tomorrow might bring.

2 people found this helpful

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Enlightening

The good and bad associated with AI. Fabulous book. I recommend to anyone who has an interest in AI to read this book.

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A must

Very good. I would say every one should read this for opening there idea. Great

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very bland

This sort of book was done years ago and much better by other authors. It's a boring rehash of familiar concepts

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overall interesting with some great stories

a bunch of it was meh, but lots of it is still really good and definitely made me think about a type of future I never thought of before

1 person found this helpful

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  • Thomas Cotter
  • 2017-10-25

Irritating

I struggled to get through this one. An interesting topic but unfortunately lumbered with clunky writing and endless name dropping. A better title would be 'memoirs of an AI safety researcher'. Read Ian M Banks culture series for a much more riveting treatment of distant future AI and the various ethical issues.

45 people found this helpful

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  • Michael
  • 2017-12-02

Odd book with some good info

This is a odd book that seems to be lobbying the reader to accept, and get involved in, the AI Safety movement. There are lots of interesting ideas, many make sense, some are kind of odd. Others have pointed out Tegmark seems to believe it is both likely (and preferable) that we are the lone civilization in all the universe. It seems this is because if this distance between civilizations was small we certainly would have noticed other civilizations. I am not convinced.

As others have noted there is a lot of name dropping and self-congratulation in this book.

The author admits he is an unapologetic optimist which influences his writing in quite a few places. I prefer realists to optimists or pessimists.

Nevertheless this is a worth the time and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in AI and the potential dangers involved. One of the key issues is that many AI researchers ignore the safety issues as AI is currently so weak safety does not seem to be a realistic concern. Tegmark (and others) point out that AI could transition from weak-AI to super-intelligent AI in just a few hours or days. Thus thinking about AI Safety now is a good idea.

The narration is quite good with somewhat tricky material.

32 people found this helpful

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  • Star shlub
  • 2017-10-23

A few interesting points in otherwise tedious book

Lots of name dropping and self-congratulations. The chapters on the physical possibilities of the expansion of artificial intelligence were interesting. Otherwise, it's a lot of vague definitions and superficial descriptions.

25 people found this helpful

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  • catherine
  • 2017-09-16

An accessible book on AI that left me optimistic

I loved the weaving of the realistic fictional story into the beginning of book, and i also appreciate that Tegmark is actively working on these issues of ai safety which made me optimistic by the end of the book (which is not usually the feeling I have at the end of a book like this).

17 people found this helpful

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  • Canuck132451
  • 2017-10-06

Confusing chapter# mismatch between audio & player

Why can't the app's chapter numbering sequence match that of the book, I.e. the text as it is being read?

14 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • blackbear
  • 2017-09-01

the most in depth query on ai I've come across

considers best and worst case ai scenarios. encourages readers to take an active part in shaping the future they wish to live in.

11 people found this helpful

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  • JPALJ
  • 2018-03-03

Wow. Whooda thunk it? Great content made accesible

What does Rob Shapiro bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Great inflection and maintains interest throughout.

Any additional comments?

An amazing topic. Everyone should have a least a working understanding of this issue. It's coming (if not already here) whether we are ready or not.

8 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2017-09-14

Voice actor gets forward and back slash mixed up.

It was a great book but the voice guy keeps saying back slash for URL's. Computer people will read this and they will all notice.

8 people found this helpful

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  • --LD
  • 2017-10-02

Some of the future think will blow your mind

Liked the book in general. Still trying to figure out tho why I didn't love it because it's well done. The start of the book could be misleading.

5 people found this helpful

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  • Zach
  • 2017-09-12

This book is important.

After finishing my first listen I'm excited to dive right back in for a second. This book reached me at a level that few other books have. Do not wait to listen to this book. If you don't have an interest in AI at all, this will quickly help you understand why you should. If you're already interested, it will provide an excellent framework for the whole AI conversation around you. It has helped fit the latest AI news into a broader context.

5 people found this helpful

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  • VERSANGE
  • 2017-10-10

Génial ! Pour les Nerds et les fans de SF

Un état des connaissances actuelles sur la vie, l'univers, l'informatique et bien sur l'intelligence artificielle, avec ses risques et son potentiel. Et une foule de scénarios possibles qui pourraient donner une centaine de romans, films ou séries.
Passionnant de bout en bout !

2 people found this helpful

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  • Joris
  • 2021-11-26

Great book!

Great book! The story is interesting and depicts accurately some of the challenges related to AI

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  • Adrien
  • 2019-05-28

Very Nice

Handels one of the most important challenges for the future humanity. Without gettolingvlost in details he covers the entire range of questions that need to be ask with IA.

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  • Chaton
  • 2019-05-01

Mind blowing

Great piece of work with broad scope way beyond expectation. I'm excited for the future

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  • Rentomi
  • 2018-09-21

Trop centré sur l'ai et ne relativise pas beaucoup

L'histoire des omégas et de Promotheus est la partie la plus intéressante. Je trouve qu'il ressort du livre une impression globale de pessimisme. L'ai ne peut être que bénéfique. Il aurait fallut relativiser plus les arguments. D'autant plus que les extrapolations de l'auteur lui permettant d'imaginer ce que serait le future de l'humanité avec des ia, reposent sur nos connaissances actuelles de loi de la physique qui peuvent clairement évoluer.

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  • mikus
  • 2018-08-22

Artificial Intelligence bible

If I was to choose one book about the artificial intelligence to read in life, I'd take this one.
First of all it is very complete - it talks about the definitions, current progress, applications, ethics, predictions...
It is very balanced - the author uses well defined but generic definitions, which are always explained and the differences covered. He also tries to always include the arguments from all sides of the environment and doesn't push the reader to believe in any particular idea he has.
It's modern and applicable, with all the names and places, plus suggestions of the ways everyone can help and adapt, plus information how everyone can be soon affected.

Many things in Life 3.0 may feel abstract, as most of the discussed matters are not going to happen within our lives or maybe ever, but its packed with super interesting deliberations and problems. Obviously it gives no clear solutions though.