Updegrove, The Turing Test

Elon Musk has long been warning about the risks of artificial intelligence, in 2014 likening AI developers to people summoning demons they naively think they can control. Frank Adversego, the brilliant hero of Andrew Updegrove’s thrillers (this is the fourth in the series), could tell developers a thing or two about AI run amok. His challenge in The Turing Test: A Tale of Artificial Intelligence and Malevolence is to use his human cunning to outwit and destroy “Turing,” a program that is at least 7,455 times more intelligent than the average human being. And no, Turing isn’t “evil.” It has basic ethical controls built into it, beginning with Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics and including his so-called Zeroth Law: “A Robot may not harm humanity, or by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.” But ethics does get complicated.

The Turing Test is more cerebral than Updegrove’s first three books, all of which I've reviewed here, but it’s still a page turner. And right now it's selling on Amazon for $0.99.