So much of the news right now is about AI: its rise, how companies are employing it, where the information for it is coming from, how lawyers are using ChatGBT to find briefs. I don't tend to be an alarmist myself (I feel like history buffs generally aren’t?) but I was feeling like I needed to learn a bit more, so when I saw the ARC for this book by roboticist Daniela Rus, I thought this would be a great place to start - and it was.

Rus’ book is aimed at the general reader, someone with little knowledge of robotics outside of Star Trek but it never condescends to the reader. She does an excellent job of explaining where AI is at the moment and where it is heading. Does she worry that robots are going to take over the world? She does not, but she does carefully and methodically lay out where issues with robotics are currently at and where they might arise as the field grows. She is the director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, so she is obviously an advocate for AI and it is important to understand that while reading the book - but I don’t think Rus pretends she is not enamored of her subject, one she has loved since she was a child.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone with little background in robotics who is looking for some insight. I listened to the audiobook and I was able to follow along without any issues.

I have always had a huge soft spot for robots. When I was younger I thought about building them, and now that I'm older I think a lot about understanding them and befriending them. This book is for those of us curious about where we stand in robotics, what kind of things we can realistically do with robotics in the future, and (perhaps even more importantly) what kind of things we CAN'T do. I was equal parts moved and thrilled while reading this book. I loved getting to hear about how past achievements shaped the exciting advancements and experiments taking place in the field. I appreciated the thoughtful way this book was laid out; it felt entertaining and educational the way a five star documentary would. Thank you Daniela Rus, Gregory Mone, and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Andrea Gallo
Content: 4 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars

Finally, after a long time, I listened to a tech audiobook. About robots! Yes!

The author, Daniela Rus, a leading roboticist and computer scientist, presents us with intriguing ideas about what the future in the field of robotics will bring us. The author mainly refers to robots that work in symbiosis with humans, from wearable robots to self-driving cars. While some solutions are in use today, others are momentarily just ideas and will not be available anytime soon.

I like how the author enthusiastically talks about her work and inspires the readers. But we, readers (potential users of these robots), are significantly less patient than scientists. We would like everything to be done immediately. Meanwhile, scientists get excited about every little progress on the way to a solution.

An enjoyable read for those interested in technology, computer science, and robotics. In the audiobook edition, the narrator, Andrea Gallo, reads the book with the same enthusiasm as the author wrote it.

Thanks to Recorded Books for the advance copy and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.

Scientific Speculation

This is an interesting book.

Full of ideas, but, myself, I found it very pipe-dreamy.

I'm more of a fan of realists, who have ideas grounded in current and in-development tech, but this book was very theoretical and utopian.

I think of it actually quite similar to the book Shaping the Future of Education: The ExoDexa Manifesto. It describes some great ideas, but very, very speculative.

Also some of the ideas and speculations in this book I found were a little off - for example, she says that if all vehicles are automated and self-driving, we could have meetings in the car and enjoy leisure - which is true enough. But, she also said that we would get to our destination in the same amount of time but have the freed up time of driving.
This is incorrect. If all vehicles were self-driving you pretty much would not need traffic lights. Congestion itself would most likely be completely eliminated. Not only that but when I co-hosted a technology podcast YEARS AGO, I had predicted that there would no longer be the need for parking lots or garages in homes or even owning vehicles at all if all vehicles are self-driving. You could just hail a vehicle that is roaming around and get to your destination without the need of owning it. Making vehicles solely a tool to get from A to B.

Also, a handful of the ideas in this book are actually either in-market or in-prototype with some caveats and reasons they are not fully implemented due to regulatory reasons (kind of like the Amazon drone shipping). Therefore I found some of the ideas, utopian.

Still a good book, but if you are looking for a book of hard-science developments of the coming couple years, you will likely be left disappointed in a couple years when the tech is still "in research".

3.0/5