Chinese edition of Technological Singularity comes at right time

British author Murray Shanahan says his new book on AI "isn't science fiction but speculation about the future".[Photo provided to China Daily]

"My book isn't meant to be science fiction, but is a speculation about the future. It's meant to be real," he says.

In his book, Shanahan prods readers to think about where humans are going as they face a future that may be totally incomprehensible based on our current knowledge of things.

AI is expected to bring us more convenience. Today, many people use "personal assistants" on their mobile devices, such as Apple's Siri, Cortana on Microsoft and so on.

Although self-driving cars will likely cause unemployment issues, they are expected to be more energy-efficient and safer.

A large number of people die or are badly injured in car accidents because of human error, but self-driving cars would be able to stop at short notice when sensing an obstacle, he says.

In his book, Shanahan argues that two misunderstandings exist in media. One, that AI has been achieved or is coming soon and two, that the universal possibility of human-level AI is a fantasy.

Earlier this year, Google's AlphGo, a robot built with a deep learning system and a one based on trial and error, beat human players in the games of Go, a more complex game than chess, in which field robots have long beaten people.

Although AlphGo is quite clever and even made creative moves in playing the games, it can't do anything else.

But the victory of machines raises questions such as: Are robots going to take over the world?

Shanahan says we are still a long way from achieving human-level AI due to limited computational and cognitive powers as well as current machine learning technologies.

Although he doesn't know by when it will come or what will mark its arrival, Shanahan is confident that technological singularity will eventually happen.

"The human brain can do it."