07/18/2025
In the 1860s, German polymath Hermann von Helmholtz proposed that prediction is the fundamental principle behind intelligence. Many neuroscientists and AI researchers have since built on Helmholtz's insight, but only recently has it become plausible to imagine that prediction really is the whole story.
In "What Is Intelligence?" (publishing September 16th), Blaise Agüera y Arcas—one of the world's leading artificial intelligence researchers at Google—argues that the prediction principle, when fully understood and interpreted broadly, may explain not only intelligence, but life itself. The book offers a unified picture of intelligence from molecules to organisms, societies, and AI systems, drawing from computer science, machine learning, biology, physics, philosophy, and neuroscience. Combining technical rigor and recent findings from Agüera y Arcas, his research team, and colleagues, "What Is Intelligence?" argues that certain modern AI systems have genuine claims to intelligence, consciousness, and free will.
"What Is Intelligence?" will also be made available upon publication. Learn more: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049955/what-is-intelligence/
