Professor José Carlos Monteiro, president of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DEI) and researcher at INESC-ID recommends a book that addresses the social impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a novel by the Portuguese writer Eça de Queirós and a renowned science fiction book.

The book “Hello World”, by Hannah Fry (2018), allows the reader to have a light and factual approach to the social impacts of AI. “This book, which has the subtitle ‘How to be Human in the Age of the Machine’, explores in a very intelligent and engaging way the theme of algorithms and their impact on our daily lives. It presents a very interesting set of current cases, some of which we are aware of, but others are much more subtle”, says the Técnico professor. “It also discusses the future and how far we want to automate our systems, for example: do we prefer to be tried in court by an algorithm that accurately weighs all available facts, or is it better to keep a person in this role, with its flaws, but with a certain level of empathy?”, says the president of DEI.

Considered one of the most important and iconic works by Eça de Queirós, the book “A Cidade e as Serras” (1901) is also part of the list of professor José Carlos Monteiro. “In addition to Eça’s brilliant writing, this book is very interesting because although it was written more than 100 years ago, it addresses the question of technological evolution and the doubts it generates at a level very similar to what we are discussing now”, says the INESC-ID researcher.

Finally, professor José Carlos Monteiro recommends the book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (1979), by Douglas Adams Reli. “I think this book fits perfectly in this eccentric period we are living right now”.