The Economic Singularity is the time when most people cannot find employment, because machines can do everything that humans can do for money cheaper, faster, and better than they can. Some people say this will never happen, but most AI professionals think it will, although they disagree about when.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already superhuman at absorbing and processing information. Robots are becoming increasingly dextrous, flexible, and safe to be around (except the military ones). AI is our most powerful technology, and you need to understand it.

This new third edition of Calum Chace’s best-selling book is substantially updated and extended. It argues that the Economic Singularity is the most important challenge facing humanity in the first half of the 21st century - and also its most exciting opportunity. Self-driving cars and smartphones you can have a conversation with may be the canaries in the coal mine, providing a wake-up call for everyone who isn’t yet paying attention. All jobs will be affected, from fast food McJobs to lawyers and journalists.

The fashionable belief that Universal Basic Income is the solution is only partly correct. We are probably going to need an entirely new economic system, and we should start planning for the Economic Singularity soon.

Chace argues that the outcome can be very good - a world in which machines do all the boring jobs and humans do pretty much what they please. But he warns there are major risks, which we can only avoid by being alert to the possible futures and planning how to avoid the negative ones.

Chace has been writing about AI since 1980, and has written two best-selling non-fiction books, and also two novels on the subject. In 2017, he co-founded the think tank, the Economic Singularity Foundation.