The line between science fiction and reality has become blurred in recent times. Thanks to the rapid advancements of the last decade, artificial intelligence is penetrating the most diverse aspects of modern life. Algorithms recognize faces in videos from surveillance cameras, computers and mobile devices communicate with humans in natural language, neural networks read CT scans, and automotive industries are preparing autonomous vehicles without drivers.

In his new book, Petros Papakonstantinou outlines the historical evolution of autonomous machines and evaluates achievements and failures, trying to trace the major upheavals brought by the fourth industrial revolution in labor, culture, and geopolitics.

Through a wealth of examples and references, he highlights artificial intelligence as a field of multiple conflicts among social classes, economic groups, and powerful states, around the central issue: who, how, for what purpose, and for whose benefit will ultimately manage to control this new force of creation but also destruction, the "electricity of the 21st century"?

For the oligarchies that control the planet, artificial intelligence embodies the old fantasy of all ruling classes: the god from the machine that will free them from unruly workers and the unpredictable conflicts of politics. For the working and intellectual laborers, the creators of all progress, artificial intelligence represents a challenge, full of new possibilities for more humane work, more free time, and greater autonomy.

Which direction will prevail cannot be guessed by any "smart" machine. It will be determined by the will and struggle of social humanity.