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Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World Hardcover – March 16, 2021

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"This colorful page-turner puts artificial intelligence into a human perspective. Through the lives of Geoff Hinton and other major players, Metz explains this transformative technology and makes the quest thrilling."
—Walter Isaacson,
author of The Code Breaker

Recipient of starred reviews in both Kirkus and Library Journal

THE UNTOLD TECH STORY OF OUR TIME
 
What does it mean to be smart? To be human? What do we really want from life and the intelligence we have, or might create?
 
With deep and exclusive reporting, across hundreds of interviews,
New York Times Silicon Valley journalist Cade Metz brings you into the rooms where these questions are being answered. Where an extraordinarily powerful new artificial intelligence has been built into our biggest companies, our social discourse, and our daily lives, with few of us even noticing. 
 
Long dismissed as a technology of the distant future, artificial intelligence was a project consigned to the fringes of the scientific community. Then two researchers changed everything. One was a sixty-four-year-old computer science professor who didn’t drive and didn’t fly because he could no longer sit down—but still made his way across North America for the moment that would define a new age of technology. The other was a thirty-six-year-old neuroscientist and chess prodigy who laid claim to being the greatest game player of all time before vowing to build a machine that could do anything the human brain could do.
 
They took two very different paths to that lofty goal, and they disagreed on how quickly it would arrive. But both were soon drawn into the heart of the tech industry. Their ideas drove a new kind of arms race, spanning Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and OpenAI, a new lab founded by Silicon Valley kingpin Elon Musk. But some believed that China would beat them all to the finish line.
 
Genius Makers dramatically presents the fierce conflict among national interests, shareholder value, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the very human concerns about privacy, security, bias, and prejudice. Like a great Victorian novel, this world of eccentric, brilliant, often unimaginably yet suddenly wealthy characters draws you into the most profound moral questions we can ask. And like a great mystery, it presents the story and facts that lead to a core, vital question:
 
How far will we let it go?
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Unlike many of the books written about AI, you don’t need a science or engineering degree to learn from and enjoy this one. Anyone with an enthusiastic curiosity about science, technology and the future of human culture will find this clear-eyed, snappily written book both entertaining and valuable. You could even call it essential for any policymakers, politicians, police, lawyers, judges and decision-makers who will be contending with the social forces unleashed by artificial intelligence. Which, soon, will mean all of them."
—The Los Angeles Times

"[An] engaging new book... [Metz’s] straightforward writing perfectly translates industry jargon for technologically un-savvy readers (like me) who might be unfamiliar with what it means for a machine to engage in 'deep learning' or master tasks through its own experiences."
—Christian Science Monitor

"Carving a narrative out of a complex and ever-changing cast of characters... The book is filled with enlightening anecdotes that add texture and drama to the story.
Genius Makers opens with Geoffrey Hinton, the Brit turned Canadian who is widely recognized as having played the most critical role in developing deep learning, the branch of AI that is changing the world today."
—Washington Post

"A ringside seat at what may turn out to be
the pivotal episode in human history... Metz has a breezy style that is easy and fun to read... undeniably charming."
Forbes

"Colorful and readable... draws on extensive access and meticulous research."
Financial Times

"Valuably suggests a framework for the right questions to ask now about AI and its use.
Genius Makers is about the people who have built the AI world."
—James Fallows, The New York Times Book Review

"The first book to chronicle the rise of savant-like artificial intelligence (AI), and the last we’ll ever need… A ripping good read."
—William Softky, Fair Observer

"An informative, enjoyable work… With vivid detail, Metz has crafted an accessible narrative that will keep readers turning the pages."
Library Journal (starred review)

"A must-read, fully-up-to-date report on the holy grail of computing."
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"With well-crafted storytelling and extensive research, Metz captures the thrill and promise of technological innovation."
Booklist

"Written by an expert who has exclusive access to each of these companies—and others who are working in this field—this is a rich, character-driven narrative that captures an extraordinary moment in the history of technology."
Irish Tech News

"In
Genius Makers, Cade Metz delivers the definitive take on how AI technology came to be and what its arrival will mean for us humans. The book relies on tireless reporting and delightful writing to bring to life one of the most surprising and important stories of our time. If you want to read one book to understand AI, this is the one."
—Ashlee Vance, New York Times bestselling author of Elon Musk

"This colorful page-turner puts artificial intelligence into a human perspective. Through the lives of Geoff Hinton and other major players, Metz explains this transformative technology and makes the quest thrilling."
Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, and The Innovators

"Cade Metz has produced an enthralling narrative of the advance of artificial intelligence. He describes the key personalities, the seminal meetings and the crucial breakthroughs with his customary eye for detail, building them into a dramatic history of this era-defining technology."
—Kai-Fu Lee, author of AI Superpowers

"This is the inside story of how AI entered Google, Facebook, and the rest of high tech.  It is also the story of how Silicon Valley and its megabucks infiltrated AI and changed its course. Chock full of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and wry humor—we learn the true tale of the technology that is transforming humanity."
—Oren Etzioni, chief executive, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

"One day soon, when computers are safely driving our roads and speaking to us in complete sentences, we'll look back at Cade Metz's elegant, sweeping
Genius Makers as their birth story—the Genesis for an age of sentient machines."
—Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store and The Upstarts
 
"
Genius Makers is an enthralling, definitive modern history of artificial intelligence. Cade Metz's detailed narrative reveals the crucial decisions made by executives, developers and investors—and foreshadows the disproportionately large effect they will have on our futures."
Amy Webb, author of The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity

About the Author

Cade Metz is a technology correspondent with The New York Times, covering artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality, and other emerging areas. Previously, he was a senior staff writer with Wired magazine. He works in The New York Times’ San Francisco bureau and lives across the bay with his wife, Taylor, and two daughters.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dutton (March 16, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1524742678
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1524742676
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.22 x 1.26 x 9.27 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 663 ratings

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4.6 out of 5 stars
663 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book enlightening about AI progress and issues. They appreciate the author's ability to make difficult concepts understandable and seamlessly blend technical brilliance with human stories. The storytelling is described as brilliant, compelling, and the definitive AI narrative. Readers also mention that it's a good read.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

15 customers mention "Understanding"15 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging and enlightening about deep learning and its progress. They praise the author's ability to make difficult concepts understandable, seamlessly blending technical brilliance with human stories. Readers describe it as an important account of recent developments and major players that led to today's AI. It is described as a must-read for tech enthusiasts and anyone curious about the future of humanity.

"...Makers is a fascinating journey through the history and evolution of artificial intelligence, offering a glimpse into the minds of those shaping our..." Read more

"...is a masterclass in storytelling, seamlessly blending the technical brilliance of artificial intelligence with the human stories of the visionaries..." Read more

"...This work is an important account of the recent developments and major players that led to today's discussions and efforts around artificial general..." Read more

"...If you are not directly involved, the book is still a great read to understand how the current AI technology came to be as it becomes omnipresent..." Read more

7 customers mention "Storytelling"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the storytelling brilliant and compelling. They describe it as the definitive AI narrative, a story of ambition, persistence, and the relentless pursuit of building the future one layer at a time. The author does a great job describing the circumstances that led to major tech companies.

"...It’s a story of ambition, persistence, and the relentless pursuit of building the future, one layer at a time." Read more

"This book is a masterclass in storytelling, seamlessly blending the technical brilliance of artificial intelligence with the human stories of the..." Read more

"...Metz does a wonderful job of storytelling around Geoff Hinton, following his career and ideas from the early 1980s to present, while integrating..." Read more

"...The author does a great job of describing the circumstances that led to the major tech companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Nvidia etc) adopting..." Read more

3 customers mention "Readability"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable and informative about progress and issues.

"...It is a good read and enlightening about the progress and issues around AI." Read more

"...Great read!" Read more

"Great book..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2024
    Cade Metz’s Genius Makers is a fascinating journey through the history and evolution of artificial intelligence, offering a glimpse into the minds of those shaping our future. From early concepts like Perceptron to breakthroughs like backpropagation and capsule networks, the book makes complex ideas accessible, showing how AI systems learn to recognize patterns and solve problems beyond human capability.

    The human stories are just as compelling as the science. Geoffrey Hinton’s decision to prioritize “the right home for his research” over profit reflects the idealism that drives many AI pioneers. Metz also captures the contrasts in their approaches, like Hinton’s flood of ideas versus Yann LeCun’s sharp focus, illustrating the diversity of thought shaping the field.

    The book doesn’t shy away from the challenges and risks of AI, highlighting ethical concerns like the need for “moral responsibilities to be baked into their design by default.” It also critiques the narrow reach of current AI systems, which often benefit only a small segment of society.

    As the Los Angeles Times notes, “You could even call it essential for any policymakers, politicians, police, lawyers, judges, and decision-makers who will be contending with the social forces unleashed by artificial intelligence. Which, soon, will mean all of them.”

    Whether you’re a tech enthusiast, a policymaker, or simply curious about AI, Genius Makers is an inspiring and thought-provoking read. It’s a story of ambition, persistence, and the relentless pursuit of building the future, one layer at a time.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2021
    This who's-who history of the VIP's of deep learning (which is the hottest form of machine learning and the source of most of the "AI" hype in recent years) heavily emphasizes the importance of that technology -- and places the few most famous folks on a somewhat-deserved if grandiose pedestal -- but lacks substance when it comes to the world-changing, money-making potential of how this technology is specifically to be used. Instead, it punctuates and demonstrates its importance mostly by way of the dazzling sums those VIPs got for selling their start-ups and by way of deep learning's (extremely impressive) technical performance on games (e.g., chess, Go, video games) and a few select applications (e.g., image recognition, machine translation). It doesn't go far substantiating concretely which of those apps can really earn a company money or otherwise provably deliver an impact. So it's great to see the recent history of these scientists uniquely laid out in one place, but then it feels a bit vacuous, since the bios and history aren't met proportionately with the actually world-changing, *concrete*, deployed accomplishments (and potential accomplishments) of deep learning. Understanding those concrete deployment scenarios, IMO, is a question that the author should have more emphatically included during each of the interviews he conducted with these VIPs when preparing the book. The gravitas given to these VIPs is overblown, replete with minutia about who met with whom at what restaurant, which serves to convey the "royal" importance (and stature) of these people more than that of their ideas or the tech's realized value. There’s a much more compelling and informed story to be told about the real (and potential) deployed wins of this tech, such as improving search results (well, that's pretty much only incremental, after a point) and the immense savings in cooling of Google's huge server banks (wow! but only briefly mentioned; buried), and much more.

    I also need to lodge a major complaint about the degree to which this book gives credence to artificial general intelligence. Now, the author is ostensibly just reporting both sides - the proponents and the skeptics - but the book certainly is heavier on the former, not to mention that giving even just half the platform to the fictional, ill-defined, ultimately meaningless concept of AGI is about as neutral as doing the same for flat-earth proponents. (Flat-earther's don't need a platform -- they already have one! Sorry, couldn't resist.)

    I would also say a popular, lay-friendly book like this has a responsibility to go much further and come down much more strongly on the ethical / social justice concerns.

    - Eric Siegel, Ph.D., author, "Predictive Analytics"
    16 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2024
    This book is a masterclass in storytelling, seamlessly blending the technical brilliance of artificial intelligence with the human stories of the visionaries who shaped it. Cade Metz makes complex concepts accessible while keeping the narrative exciting. A must-read for tech enthusiasts and anyone curious about the future of humanity shaped by AI!
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2023
    Cade Metz has written a mesmerizing account of how deep learning, and its long-time proponents, have come to dominate AI and shift the balance of power in the tech world. The book briefly traces the roots of neural network and connectionist approaches that were discredited by most early AI pioneers like Minsky and also held with contempt by top researchers and tech company executives as recently as 10 years ago. Metz does a wonderful job of storytelling around Geoff Hinton, following his career and ideas from the early 1980s to present, while integrating most of the important AI researchers along the way. Metz has also revealed extraordinary details of how the tech giants raced to acquire talent and develop deep learning capabilities. This work is an important account of the recent developments and major players that led to today's discussions and efforts around artificial general intelligence. Genius Makers is a more compelling read than Walter Isaacson's The Innovators- and that's saying something!
    5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Historical perspective on AI
    Reviewed in Canada on April 26, 2024
    Enjoy reading it (I am about 40%), it provides an historical academic/big lab view of AI
  • Rafael Azevedo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very good
    Reviewed in Brazil on June 3, 2023
    Very interesting book. It deserves an update, as AI has seem to be in 2023 in a tip point.
  • Cliente Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Interesante
    Reviewed in Spain on May 2, 2024
    Interessant
  • Vaibhav Pant
    5.0 out of 5 stars Liked the book a lot
    Reviewed in India on December 30, 2023
    Liked the book a lot. Nice history of how the stalwarts have brought about the latest AI revolution. Worth a read.
  • SG
    5.0 out of 5 stars Geoff Hinton and the Deep Learning Conspiracy Examined
    Reviewed in Germany on May 21, 2022
    I really enjoyed this book. It's the best book I could have wished to read in the month in which I launch an AI startup. There so much in Metz's book about the value of ideas, science and research. That value is absolutely idealistic but also the numbers speak for themselves if the sales prices of startups like DeepMind and OpenAI are discussed or figures which researchers were given for part-time work at a major tech giant are given. If you're a researcher or scientist whose struggling to convince people why science and research are worth investment or even pursuing this is a book that even translates the original blue-sky research on brain models into actual dollar amounts. If you're trying to justify why a startup should develop future tech instead of just building a product, there's a lot to find here. I've also been critical of Deep Learning and Geoff Hinton in the past - now I see them in a different light. However, while the book truly is a great read and I kept quoting ideas, facts, concepts, and lines from the book over the past weeks, there is an element of repetition with respect to the victim narrative of Hinton and LeCun always portraying themselves as overcoming unbelievable odds as Neural Networks were not always "flavour of the months". I also felt details were missing. Pitts and McCulloch were only mentioned as "two researchers from Chicago a decade earlier" (approx.) and Google's VP of Machine Learning Peter Norvig in my recollection had quite a significant role in the rise of machine learning at Google but isn't mentioned at all.
    Overall, a cool read.