Book Review of ChatGPT and the Future of AI

I reviewed “ChatGPT and the Future of AI: The Deep Language Revolution” by Terrence J. Sejnowski. This book is an extensive exploration of large language models, also known as LLMs. They are the basis for generative AI applications like ChatGPT. The author contends they will make us humans smarter as we leave repetitive language based tasks to AI.

The author’s writing style is concise and authoritative, with a sprinkle of humor in places. Comparing LLMs to Peter Man, as they have not grown up and live in a digital never-never land, is as witty as it is accurate. This book is very readable, yet in parts can get technical. The author handles this with high-level comparisons to our general past to illustrate a point. Overall, it’s an informative read on the current state of LLMs, their potential for AI, and AI’s future, co-existing with humans.

ChatGPT and the Future of AI reviewed

The author comes across as a passionate ambassador of AI, but does not address genuine security concerns regarding the technology. Accuracy of prompt content returns, cybercrime, and AI abuse cases are just some highlights that materially affect AI’s future.

The informative read starts at the preface, with some interesting facts about AI’s current state and current use cases. It also explores the author’s motive for writing the book, and why we are looking for AI’s intelligence in the wrong place. The author uses chapter section titles effectively. This sectioned title feature increases the ease of reading throughout the book’s subsequent chapters.

Moving into an introduction, where the author sets out reader expectations for the book. Split into three parts, Part 1, Living With Large Language Models (LLMs), is over chapters 1 to 5. This part looks at the current state of Large Language Models today.

Part 2, Transformers, is from chapters 6 to 10. It covers the backend of AI from deep learning models, and the evolution of a computational infrastructure to enable transformers in a distributed architecture. This part can get technology and maths heavy for some, but the author addresses it with illustrative real world comparisons.

The last part 2 chapter on Regulation is brief, but makes some points regarding the Digital Services Act in the EU and testimony in the US regarding setting up an agency like the FDA to manage AI’s development path. This chapter alludes to relevant points on regulation and interestingly gets AI to fill in some detail around it. ChatGPT features regularly to support chapter points throughout the book, demonstrating its usability.

Part 3, Back to the Future, is from chapters 11 to 14, ending with some predications for AI’s future. No keyboards are but one predication made. Instead, voice controlled interactions will make life easier for users of large distribution information systems like the internet.

In looking forward, this makes sense for integrating many AI modules into a language bound Artificial General Intelligence. However, trust in ethical use and abuse control, both present and future, is an issue. It is something that requires a nation to develop with the technology sector, rather than the technology sector to develop and sell to a nation.

The author finishes with a comparison of humanity’s evolution and how we co-exist with nature without ever fully understanding it. He equates this to AI’s progress and the argument for peaceful co-existence with humans. We don’t need to fully understand AI to push ahead with it.

It’s my view that while the majority do not, AI creators need to fully understand their creations. We did not create humanity, nature did, thus nullifying this comparison. While AI has shown us it has a proper place in our world, its future needs to be carefully thought-out.

We cannot afford to create another monster of our own making, but can wholly benefit from an AI ecosystem with the best interests of humanity in mind. In that, AI’s future, as the book suggests, can travel many paths, as long as we use effective care and caution to bring everybody with us into this new world.

By John Mulhall @soldersee | john@authormulhall.com is a writer with Irish Tech News for over 8 years and also a Cloud Engineer, Writer, and Novelist. You can learn more about John, and his debut novel “From Terror to Valor: Echoes and Shadows” on his author site at https://authormulhall.com

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