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To say that AI 2041 is enlightening and valuable, is to understate its significance. It’s organized around ten short stories - vignettes of future life transformed by advances in AI and data science that cover how we will learn, amuse ourselves, live in cities, deal with pandemics and more. Each story is sandwiched between a non-fiction introduction and an epilogue that enable the reader to relate the likely trajectory of technology’s evolution to its impact on our social fabric. In so doing, the authors have created a new genre of “scientific fiction�� that is sure to enlighten anyone who wonders where the heck this is all heading.

Underneath its stories, AI2041 poses a more fundamental question that can be summed up as “so what for the humans?�� Specific ponder-worthy topics include: “What is a career?�� “How is our sense of what it means to be human likely to evolve?�� “What will being ‘educated�� mean in the future?�� “How will humans and machines come together in new forms of hybrid intelligence and what will be the new rules of engagement?��

Much has been made of how AI will encroach on the “trade space�� for human labor. As AI devours jobs involving routine thinking and pattern recognition, we will begin to bid farewell to countless professional activities such as reading x-rays, legal research and basic accounting. We can be certain that the pace of innovation will continue to accelerate as capital continues to pour into “AI everywhere�� business models and their associated ventures. It is also inevitable that we will need to continuously ‘negotiate�� our relationship with AI as it becomes ever more capable. It’s worth noting that back in the 1990’s, author Dan Simmons described a future in which AI would not only coexist with humans but would eventually declare its independence and develop multiple competing embodiments and relationships with humanity while it pursued its own creative project of developing an “ultimate intelligence.�� So stay tuned.

One of the key contributions of AI2041 is to show us how to thrive in a world increasingly shaped by technology. In a recent interview with me, Lee Kai-fu referred to the secret sauce of humans in the AI era as “warm skills.�� I think this is a fundamental insight that calls out for more clarity about which proficiencies are inherently human and can never be replaced by technology. These include empathy, compassion, collaboration, a growth mindset, agility, trust building, and creativity among others �� what some refer to as ��21st century skills.��

In the vintage short story Virtuoso by Herbert Goldstone, a robot asks an eminent pianist for permission to learn the piano. By day’s end, it plays Beethoven's Appassionata sonata with such feeling that it brings tears to the maestro’s eyes. The story concludes with the robot refusing further involvement music, saying that “some things were not meant for machines.�� The point here is that while a robot may be able to perform music perfectly, at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter. Music is an inherently human activity, requiring human empathy and aesthetic sense to make a meaningful connection between performer and listener. What does matter is when humans create the work, perform it, appreciate it and are moved by it. And when we pay attention to the humanity in a performance �� including its imperfections and idiosyncrasies �� we express the kind of warm skills that will forever define our human ‘trade space.��

Science fiction has historically opened our eyes to far horizons. AI2041’s scientific fiction gives us a way to open our eyes to what is actually going on all around us and where things are heading.