These Strange New Minds

A brilliant guide to the most important technology of our times

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI & Cofounder of DeepMind

As a leading authority in both computational neuroscience and the social impacts of AI, Christopher Summerfield is perfectly situated to explore the meaning and implications of these machines that are so uncannily like – and unlike – ourselves

Brian Christian, co-author of Algorithms to Live by

Summerfield takes us on a tour of this astonishing new technolog - general purpose AI - and helps us to understand the issues it raises. You might choose to be alarmed, excited, or indifferent to large language models but you should read Chris’s book before you decide

Mike Woolridge, author of The Road to Conscious Machines

By far the best guide to a newly emerging species with which we will share the planet for the foreseeable future

Stuart Russell, author of Human Compatible

With clarity, insight and wit, Summerfield dives beneath the ever-breaking wave of large language models to reveal the deeper principles at play, and the challenges and opportunities that these powerful new technologies present. An essential and highly readable guide to thinking abut how, and weather, computers can think, what's coming next and what we should do about it

Anil Seth, author of Being You

'A closeup look at the large language models that have radically changed computer technology...a clear-minded, accessible examination of how AI systems work'

Kirkus

For readers fascinated by the future of AI, this book is an eye-opening exploration of a revolution unfolding before our eyes

New York Journal of Books

Summerfield, a neuroscientist at Oxford, charts the evolution of artificial intelligence, from early large language models to today’s ChatGPT, and reflects on the larger questions of learning and consciousness

The New York Times