Drawing on science, philosophy, literature and the arts, and touching on aspects of life as diverse as language, work, school, chess, speed-dating, art, video games, psychiatry and the law, this book shows that far from being a threat to our humanity, computers provide a better means than ever before of understanding what it is.

'Vital reading. This is the book on artificial intelligence we need right now.' Mike Krieger, cofounder of Instagram Artificial intelligence is rapidly dominating every aspect of our modern lives influencing the news we consume, whether we get a mortgage, and even which friends wish us happy birthday. But as algorithms make ever more decisions on our behalf, how do we ensure they do what we want? And fairly? This conundrum - dubbed 'The Alignment Problem' by experts - is the subject of this timely and important book. From the AI program which cheats at computer games to the sexist...