Future Tense: How We Made Artificial Intelligence—and How It Will Change Everything

Ages 12 to 18

In this riveting and accessible nonfiction book for teens, Martha Brockenbrough explores how artificial intelligence began, how it is already affecting us, and how it is likely to affect us in the near future.

Human history has always been shaped by technology, but AI is like no technology that has come before it. Unlike the wheel, combustion engines, or electricity, AI does the thing that humans do best: think. AI has defeated players at games like chess. It can create art and music. It’s even allowed grieving people to feel as though they were talking with dead loved ones. It's also put innocent people in jail, manipulated the emotions of social media users, and tricked people into believing untrue things.

Martha Brockenbrough guides readers through the development of this technology, exploring how AI has touched every corner of our world. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how AI got here, how to make the best use of it, and how we can expect it to transform our lives.

About the Author

Martha Brockenbrough is an award-winning, critically acclaimed author of fiction and nonfiction for young readers. She has won many awards and was a finalist for the prestigious Kirkus Prize. She’s a faculty member and faculty cochair at Vermont College of Fine Arts, and has worked as a journalist, a teacher, and the editor of MSN.com.