These Strange New Minds Audiobook By Christopher Summerfield cover art

These Strange New Minds

How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means

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These Strange New Minds

By: Christopher Summerfield
Narrated by: Rufus Wright
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An insider look at the Large Language Models (LLMs) that are revolutionizing our relationship to technology, exploring their surprising history, what they can and should do for us today, and where they will go in the future—from an AI pioneer and neuroscientist

In this accessible, up-to-date, and authoritative examination of the world’s most radical technology, neuroscientist and AI researcher Christopher Summerfield explores what it really takes to build a brain from scratch. We have entered a world in which disarmingly human-like chatbots, such as ChatGPT, Claude and Bard, appear to be able to talk and reason like us—and are beginning to transform everything we do. But can AI ‘think’, 'know' and ‘understand’? What are its values? Whose biases is it perpetuating? Can it lie and if so, could we tell? Does their arrival threaten our very existence?

These Strange New Minds charts the evolution of intelligent talking machines and provides us with the tools to understand how they work and how we can use them. Ultimately, armed with an understanding of AI’s mysterious inner workings, we can begin to grapple with the existential question of our age: have we written ourselves out of history or is a technological utopia ahead?

©2025 Christopher Summerfield (P)2025 Penguin Audio Computer Science History History & Culture Technology & Society Technology Thought-Provoking Human Brain

Critic reviews

“A compelling and insightful exploration of large language models (LLMs) and their profound world impact. This work is both a great introduction to artificial intelligence and a thought-provoking analysis of its capabilities and limitations…. A key addition to collections, this is more than just another tech book: it’s a guide to navigating the era of AI with awareness, and the writing encourages readers to think critically about how humans interact with the technology.”—Library Journal

“Christopher Summerfield offers a lucid, thoughtful and deeply humane exploration of the lines between human and machine intelligence—and of what those frontiers reveal about our own minds. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand not merely where AI is headed, but what it is showing us about ourselves.”—IBM

“Provocative… Summerfield brings some welcome nuance and clarity to discussions of LLMs. In a crowded field of AI primers, this rises to the top.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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Well researched book that gives a good level headed perspective to the current AI models, LLMs. The research isn't very eye popping, but for the subject matter of AI it does stand out. The author does a very good job in putting the market into perspective with a good foundation of research. Very informative. Good overall book if interested in the subject of AI and LLMs.

Excellent Perspective to AI

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