I have one Class left at the Local University on books using Artificial Intelligence as part of the Plot. All four books have been dystopian in Nature, and the major Theme in them all is simple; what does it mean to be Human?

But they are all sad books. Not easy reads. I asked the Professor why she picked so many dystopian books about AI. She said this:

"Simple, Kevin, I couldn't find any utopian AI books."

Yet I have a friend who's son is a Microbiologist (and Medical Doctor) and he raves about the breakthroughs Medically Trained AI's have made. Including amazing work on finding ways to treat Super Resistant Bacterial Infections.

Another friend is a Professor of Chemistry (retired, but still part of a Board) and he also is amazed at how much AI has brought to the table. He says that papers written by specifically trained AI's are way better than those of most Ph.D students.
Yet few of those stories make it to the front page of the daily news (and how old do you have to be to use that as a sentence? It is equivalent to ordering a BlockBuster video on a rotary phone!). What makes the News is the way AI's can (and are) being used by Humans to propagate misinformation, interfere in elections, and deep fake people's sayings.

So one more class, one more book, and then the doom and gloom reading is over. I think I want my next class to be on Calvin and Hobbs, or maybe the Far Side. I need to laugh once in a while.