I feel like I follow AI news, but so much of the OpenAI vs. DeepMind story that Parmy Olson tells in this book was new and compelling to me. Parmy tells a very human tale of a rivalry between two very gifted tech entrepreneurs--and a technology that is poised to change the world. Highly recommend!

This is a very timely book because it deals with issues that will affect most of us over the coming years. It is clear that 1st world countries are going to continue widening their gap with 3rd world countries in the race for AI and advanced technology. Each decade we seem to be moving faster and faster in this field. The people pushing it or leading depending on how you view their motives, have big egos and lots of money behind them. The author does a good job of keeping everything as current as possible. It does appear to me that the author, at times, sides with one person over the others and the work, or influence, outside this topic is not fully developed. The people at the top have their agendas and are going to use this new technology to further their own goals. I highly recommend this book if you have any interest in what is being developed and by whom.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance audiobook copy! This audiobook details the race for developing AI between Open AI and DeepMind. There is a lot of information shared, and a lot to consider. For me, it stood out that current AI technology is biased and often racist and sexist. Much of the technology was developed by teams of white men, and other perspectives were not taken into account. The race for advanced AI technology is motivated by money and greed, not for the hood of humanity and for the planet. Olson was able to bring to life the personalities of the main players. It was interesting to hear the backstories and how things played out. The narrator did a nice job. At times, the amount of information presented was a bit overwhelming to me. I had trouble keeping track of all of the details, however the main points were clear. There is a lot I did not know and understand about AI technology, and I feel like this audiobook has filled in some of the gaps.

“The idea of an extinction threat from AI was becoming a fixture in public discourse, so much so that you could bring it up with your in-laws at dinner and they’d be nodding along at its importance,” as Parmy Olson writes in this timely and important book. But she claims that this whole “AI doom” narrative is only a deliberate distraction, designed to divert our attention from real problems that machine learning algorithms were causing, such as reinforcement of bias and growing influence of Big Tech. To make her case, the author uses parallel biographies of two of the most important players in the field: Sam Altman, the creator of OpenAI, and Demis Hassabis, the CEO of DeepMind. Their stories sound disturbingly familiar: they begin with high ideals and talk of creating a better world, and end with a lack of transparency and dominance by the largest technology companies. Wasn't Facebook also purportedly created to connect people? And Google’s motto was “don’t be evil”? “Imagine if a pharmaceutical company released a new drug with no clinical trials and said it was testing the medication on the wider public. Or a food company released an experimental preservative with little scrutiny. That was how large tech firms were about to start deploying large language models to the public, because in their race to profit from such powerful tools, there were zero regulatory standards to follow”, writes Olson. As we are on the verge of an AI revolution, it is very important to know what we are dealing with. This book provides plenty of facts and some very strong arguments, so I would urge everyone to read it. Thanks to the publisher, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Everything you want to know about the new AI chatbots and the creators behind them are detailed in Supremacy. The book begins with the biographies of OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, and DeepMind CEO, Demis Hassabis. Both begin with altruistic views of saving, or at least, helping, mankind. But the massive amounts of money in Silicon Valley as well as their own egos, soon change their focus to winning the war for users. Then tech giants, Microsoft and Google, jump in with offers impossible to refuse. By November 2022 the battle is on, with very few guardrails for privacy, misinformation or even old standbys like sexism and racism. How society responds will determine our future. Will it be the utopia of Star Trek? The hell of The Terminator? Or something in between? Supremacy is an important book to read. It doesn’t particularly push whether AI will ultimately be good or bad for society. Government, on both sides of the aisle, are concerned. However, bureaucracy moves slowly. All people should decide for themselves and this book will give them some important information to help. 5 stars! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an advanced review copy.