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AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Kai-Fu Lee (Author), Chen Qiufan (Author), Feodor Chin (Narrator),
4.3 out of 5 stars 1,853 ratings
Editors' pick Best Nonfiction

How will artificial intelligence change our world within 20 years?

A Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Financial Times Best Book of the Year

“This inspired collaboration between a pioneering technologist and a visionary writer of science fiction offers bold and urgent insights.” (Yann LeCun, winner of the Turing Award; chief AI scientist, Facebook)

“Amazingly entertaining. ... Lee and Chen take us on an immersive trip through the future. ... Eye-opening.” (Mark Cuban)

AI will be the defining development of the 21st century. Within two decades, aspects of daily human life will be unrecognizable. AI will generate unprecedented wealth, revolutionize medicine and education through human-machine symbiosis, and create brand-new forms of communication and entertainment. In liberating us from routine work, however, AI will also challenge the organizing principles of our economic and social order. Meanwhile, AI will bring new risks in the form of autonomous weapons and smart technology that inherit human bias. AI is at a tipping point, and people need to wake up - both to AI’s radiant pathways and its existential perils for life as we know it.

In this provocative, utterly original work, Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China and best-selling author of AI Superpowers, teams up with celebrated novelist Chen Qiufan to imagine our world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. In 10 gripping short stories, they introduce listeners to an array of eye-opening 2041 settings, such as:

  • In San Francisco, the “job reallocation” industry emerges as deep learning AI causes widespread job displacement.
  • In Tokyo, a music fan is swept up in an immersive form of celebrity worship based on virtual reality and mixed reality.
  • In Mumbai, a teenage girl rebels when AI’s crunching of big data gets in the way of romance.
  • In Seoul, virtual companions with perfected natural language processing (NLP) skills offer orphaned twins new ways to connect.
  • In Munich, a rogue scientist draws on quantum computing, computer vision, and other AI technologies in a revenge plot that imperils the world.

By gazing toward a not-so-distant horizon, AI 2041 offers urgent insights into our collective future - while reminding listeners that, ultimately, humankind remains the author of its destiny.

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  1. Listening Length
    18 hours and 4 minutes
  2. Author
    Kai-Fu Lee, see all
  3. Narrator
    Feodor Chin, see all
  4. Audible release date
    September 14, 2021
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B08SFL53HL
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length 18 hours and 4 minutes
Author Kai-Fu Lee, Chen Qiufan
Narrator Feodor Chin, Justin Chien, Soneela Nankani, Mirron Willis, Emily Woo Zeller, Siho Ellsmore, Fajer Al-Kaisi
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date September 14, 2021
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B08SFL53HL
Best Sellers Rank

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
1,853 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers appreciate the book's engaging mix of fiction, where each story is followed by an analysis, and find it a compelling read, particularly for tech-savvy readers. Moreover, the book provides an insightful look at AI's future, with one customer noting its deep strategic insights, and customers find it well-written and easily understandable. Customers describe the book as innovative, though some find it boring and difficult to get into.

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Fiction contentReadabilityInsightWriting qualityCreativityBoredomDifficulty to understand
44 customers mention "Fiction content"40 positive4 negative

Customers appreciate the book's engaging mix of fiction, with each story followed by an analysis.

"...This supporting analysis, written in an easily understandable and accessible way, is a terrifically informative complement to each of the seemingly..." Read more

"Despite serious misgivings, the story sections are uplifting, and many have passed my "grandpa" test to recommend to my grandchildren and kin...." Read more

"...I have to say, if anyone out there is looking for the best sci-fi of 2021, this is exactly the kind of book you should be considering...." Read more

"...The Short Stories The short stories cover many areas of AI such as: deep learning, natural language processing, augmented and virtual..." Read more

28 customers mention "Readability"28 positive0 negative

Customers find the book compelling and fun to read, particularly praising its accessibility to tech-savvy readers.

"...This really is story telling at its best. It is the best effort I have come across to help one envision and nearly experience how aspects of..." Read more

"...is at the heart of every story: deep learning, image recognition, GAN, deepfake…each story is paired with an essay explaining the central technology...." Read more

"...the short stories to get to it, I found Lee’s analysis to be much more engaging. He gives a decent introduction to the key AI technologies...." Read more

"To say that AI 2041 is enlightening and valuable, is to understate its significance...." Read more

24 customers mention "Insight"18 positive6 negative

Customers find the book provides a powerful and insightful look at the future of artificial intelligence, with one customer highlighting its deep strategic analysis and another noting its honest examination of social and governmental issues.

"...AI technology is at the heart of every story: deep learning, image recognition, GAN, deepfake…each story is paired with an essay explaining the..." Read more

"...The short stories cover many areas of AI such as: deep learning, natural language processing, augmented and virtual reality, along with autonomous..." Read more

"...There is way lots of "techno-babble", some of which is hilariously ill-informed, especially in the last "plentitude: singularity" Chapter 10...." Read more

"Great book about AI and the future AI could bring us, both good and bad. Highly recommend." Read more

16 customers mention "Writing quality"16 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well written and easily understandable, with one customer noting that the author does a great job distilling complex topics.

"...This supporting analysis, written in an easily understandable and accessible way, is a terrifically informative complement to each of the seemingly..." Read more

"...Lee’s essays are well-written and cuts straight to the point. He achieves clarity and precision without relying too much on the regular jargon, and..." Read more

"...stories cover many areas of AI such as: deep learning, natural language processing, augmented and virtual reality, along with autonomous vehicles..." Read more

"...The analysis is more appealing for my fact based reading tastes...." Read more

11 customers mention "Creativity"11 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's creativity, describing it as imaginative and innovative, with one customer noting how it sparks imagination about the future.

"...the book conveys this information in a much more interesting, imaginative, and highly contextualized way...." Read more

"...collaboration, a growth mindset, agility, trust building, and creativity among others – what some refer to as “21st century skills.”..." Read more

"...is excellent and authentic, imbued with authority, confidence, forward-looking and optimism, although the last of which is oddly..." Read more

"...the most important artistic genre of our time as it sparks our imagination towards the future...." Read more

4 customers mention "Boredom"0 positive4 negative

Customers find the book boring.

"The book doesn’t hold your attention. Boring!" Read more

"Too much time about the future. The book was not interesting because the content did not have good stories. I lost my money" Read more

"Boring puff pieces. Skip it." Read more

"Boring and uninspiring and predictable..." Read more

4 customers mention "Difficulty to understand"0 positive4 negative

Customers find the book difficult to understand, with several mentioning it is hard to get into, and one customer noting that the technical explanations require careful reading.

"...are discussed at a deep technical level, there is certainly no math, but everything seems concise and accurate...." Read more

"...Sometimes the technical explanations need a second glance, but I appreciate having the option to delve into the science behind each story." Read more

"This book was difficult to get into...initial chapters were technologically dense, but necessarily so...." Read more

"...This made it difficult to follow. But his summary at the end of each story was very good." Read more

Intriguing narrative, page-turner, eye-opening AI technology
5 out of 5 stars
Intriguing narrative, page-turner, eye-opening AI technology
Strongly recommended! In short, if you want to learn about AI -- but also read REALLY GOOD science fiction -- then you really can't find a better book. I can't label this as either fiction or non-fiction, it's certainly one-of-its-kind and honestly couldn't be created by a team with less expertise in AI research and literary genius. I was most moved by the two authors' introduction. As author Chen Qiufan expresses with hope and sincerity in the opening to the book, "with every future we wish to create, we must first learn to imagine it." This is exactly THE book that will serve as a sturdy anchor to the ever-evolving turbulent reality, simultaneously letting your imagination soar high and bringing it back down to Earth.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Steven Miller (SMU, Singapore)
    5.0 out of 5 stars Envision the forthcoming AI-permeated future in 20 years in an evidence-based and imaginative way
    Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2022
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    The stories are terrific. Kai Fu used his extensive contacts and knowledge network as well as his own incredible depth and breadth of knowledge to think through a roadmap for what he expects AI capabilities will be 20 years from now. He bases his imagination-based forecasting on ongoing actual AI R&D developments, things currently being done by AI start-ups in China, US and other countries, and by his own very well-informed judgement on how to extrapolate today’s current state-of-best-industry-practice with deploying AI to what should realistically be possible at scale 20 years from now.

    Except - the book does not present this roadmap per say. Rather, the book conveys this information in a much more interesting, imaginative, and highly contextualized way. Based on Kai-Fu’s roadmap and undoubtedly based on intensive conversations and collaborative review with Kai Fu, the science fiction writer Chen Qiufan (aka Stanley Chan) creates 10 stories. Each story is a remarkably high-fidelity portrayal of real, every-day life in the year 2041. The use of AI capabilities at that future point in time is just part of how things happen, woven into the fabric of what everyday reality is, though 20 years from now.

    Each story revolves around capabilities enabled by a few key AI areas. In this sense, each story has a very focused set of themes it elaborates per AI capabilities. At the same time, the stories are not about the AI per say. Each story is deeply and realistically contextualized so that it is about selected aspects of human life, experience, and interaction, as well as the surrounding human social and political environment in the year 2041. The way each story is crafted, certain AI capabilities are deeply interwoven into what life is like and how things happen. Through the collection of stories, the reader can tangibly grasp and vividly experience how AI will very plausibly be changing the way we live and the nature of our lives and interactions across our personal and work-related dimensions.

    After each story, Kai Fu gives his analysis of the AI capabilities highlighted in that story. This part is non-fiction. Kai Fu gives his views on where certain AI capabilities will be (those highlighted or implied in that story), and why he thinks this is the case. This supporting analysis, written in an easily understandable and accessible way, is a terrifically informative complement to each of the seemingly very real science fiction stories crafted by Qiufan. The post-story analysis helps to reinforce key points on how the AI capabilities featured in the story are likely to evolve over the next two decades.

    This really is story telling at its best. It is the best effort I have come across to help one envision and nearly experience how aspects of everyday life and work and the broader social/political environment are likely to be 20 years from now because of the pervasive usage of increasingly capable AI . Yet, there are no assumptions of magic or miracles per future AI capabilities when they envision these human-centric stories set in a future setting. The projections of capabilities 20 years into the future are to a very large extent--- fact and reality based given what is already observable now across the spectrum of leading-edge research to state-of-the-industry-practice deployment. Of course, the two authors do allow themselves to do some very creative, though reality-grounded “imagineering” of this uncertain future, and this allows them to explore new possibilities of how people and society may function within the stories.

    The approach this book takes of combining “evidence-based” science fiction with supporting post-story fact-based analysis on AI technology directions helps me to envision the forthcoming AI-permeated future 20 years from now better than anything else I have come across. I suspect you will feel likewise after you read this book.
    22 people found this helpful
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  • Loco Nova
    4.0 out of 5 stars Sci-fi, some familiar themes in new times
    Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2023
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Despite serious misgivings, the story sections are uplifting, and many have passed my "grandpa" test to recommend to my grandchildren and kin. Some of the sections, especially "Twin Sparrows" and "The Holy Driver" will thrill my creative gaming grandkids and grandnephews.

    Also:
    * "Contactless Love" attempts to explore "AI healthcare" with no mention of "AI cybernetic diagnosis", AI working with doctors to improve what they do, never assuming the sometimes "leap of faith" that clinical medicine can require
    * "The Golden Elephant", "Gods Behind the Masks", "Quantum Genocide", "My Haunting Idol", explore sci-fi topics like "AI tech bias", "AI deep fake news and promotions", "Alternate currency disasters", "AI alternate reality", which remind me of new sci-fi in the old pulp style

    Furthermore:
    * "The Job Saviour", "Isle of Happiness", "Dreaming of Plenitude" are "Player Piano" AI wannabees. Great stories, that are as off-base and economically off-prediction as the old economic sci-fi pulp silliness was. What's missing and should have occurred with the "Isle of Happiness" reading about Maslow, is the depth of "Brave New World". The interested reader may peruse "Superintelligence" by Bostrom for better informed economic ideas.

    In younger days, my science fiction reading included "Brave New World" by Huxley, "1984" by Orwell, "Player Piano" by Vonnegut, lighthearted works by Asimov like "The Relativity of Wrong", and various surprisingly engaging sci-fi pulp fiction (which frequently resembles that in "AI 2041", but decades ago, sans AI). Many were great warnings against large private, media, political, and government organizations that reduce, if not destroy, the benefits of a democracy and free market. Although Chapter 2 on "deep fakes" may fit, nothing here really has the depth of the former mastery. In fact, I come away feeling that AI and big data are being promoted, while ignoring serious issues that past sci-fi would have attacked.

    There is way lots of "techno-babble", some of which is hilariously ill-informed, especially in the last "plentitude: singularity" Chapter 10. Although I'd consider Lee a fellow traveler of sorts, we may disagree about AI and big data "trust corruption", which I predict could inspire an "AI trust winter" worldwide. This would make for great sci-fi, for current times.
    10 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • DCM
    3.0 out of 5 stars Moins bien que le premier livre
    Reviewed in France on August 25, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    Pas grand chose de nouveau par rapport au premier livre.
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  • Javier
    5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book to understand the potential of AI to improve our life in the future.
    Reviewed in Spain on October 31, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    I found very interesting this book to understand better the potential of AI (Artificial intelligence) to change our life. A good utilization of AI will improve people’s life but there are many risks and problems to do it. If the evolution of these new technologies will make a better world or not it will depend on us. The authors seem quite optimistic about that.
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  • Davide
    5.0 out of 5 stars Intrigante e Visionario
    Reviewed in Italy on June 23, 2022
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Libro molto interessante con storie che parlano del futuro (imminente) pieno di AI, robot, ecc...
    Ottimi anche i paragrafi di spiegazione tecnica relative alle storie.
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  • Hussain A.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly grounded and elaborate visions of the AI future
    Reviewed in Canada on August 6, 2023
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    This is a long book for what it purportedly sets out to do, but it is enjoyable. Each of the ten stories is well written. While not sophisticated stories, they have enough depth to be enjoyable while delivering the vision of the future. Each of the stories is followed by an explanation of the various technologies and how they work (at an overview level) and also the non-technical aspects such as bias, economics, social impact, etc.

    If you’re interested in the wide world of the AI, this would be a very interesting read for you.
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  • Kirito Yuuki
    3.0 out of 5 stars Short stories.
    Reviewed in Australia on August 31, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    This story actually has multiple small stories how AI could be like in our lives. The good, and the bad.😐
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