<p>''<b>I wish it was science fiction, but I know it''s not</b>.'' <i>Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype</i><br><br>''<b>If you read just one book that makes you confront scary high-tech realities</b> that we''ll soon have no choice but to address, <b>make it this one</b>.'' <i>Washington Post</i><br><br> Corporations and government agencies around the world have for years been pouring billions into achieving AI''s Holy Grail - human-level intelligence. But once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful, and more alien than we can imagine.<br><br>First published ten years ago, <i>Our Final Invention </i>predicted much of the artificial ''intelligence explosion'' that is now ripping through our culture, and was <b>named by Elon Musk as one of five books everyone should read about the future</b>. Now with an urgent new preface, James Barrat''s landmark work explores the ethics,