Name: Brains Minds Machines: The Mystery of Human Intelligence, the Enigmas of the Artificial
Author: Tomaso Poggio (Author), Marco Magrini (Author), Katherine Gregor (Translator)
ISBN: 9780262054362

Brains Minds Machines: The Mystery of Human Intelligence, the Enigmas of the Artificial book cover

Brains Minds Machines: The Mystery of Human Intelligence, the Enigmas of the Artificial

Author(s): Tomaso Poggio (Author), Marco Magrini (Author), Katherine Gregor (Translator)

Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: August 25, 2026
Language: English
Print length: 208 pages
ISBN-10: 0262054361
ISBN-13: 9780262054362

Book Description

An exploration of the past, present, and possible futures of AI from an AI pioneer.

Intelligence remains an open mystery. The fact that only humans possess language, alphabets, and science doesn’t grant us a monopoly on it. We share our existence with millions of other species, both animal and plant, each endowed with such a diverse range of cognitive abilities that they form an almost infinite spectrum of intelligences. Brains Minds Machines explores these intelligences and goes further to examine the possibilities, risks, and opportunities of our newest one—artificial intelligence.

Thanks to the combined emergence of more sophisticated algorithms, vast databases, and immense computing power, the age-old aspiration of mathematically replicating human intelligence has achieved unexpected milestones. While still far from truly succeeding, a small “zoo” of artificial intelligences can already perform numerous tasks typically done by humans. Like electricity or computers, this technology is poised to transform society, the economy, and daily life, bringing with it a host of risks and opportunities. However, it is also going to be an opportunity for new, extraordinary scientific discoveries, starting with the very secrets of intelligence itself —the fundamental principles common to all forms of intelligence.

Editorial Reviews

Review

ENDORSEMENTS

"From one of the founding minds of AI, a sweeping and delightfully readable journey through the science of intelligence—and what it means for our world and our future."
—Theodoros Evgeniou, Professor of Technology and Business, INSEAD

"An exploration of biological and artificial intelligence, and what they mean for society, from the perspective of a passionate scientific pioneer—informative, enjoyable, and thought-provoking."
—Pietro Perona, Allen E. Puckett Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology

"A deeply insightful and personal exploration of intelligence, natural or otherwise, by one of the pioneers of neural learning and computational neuroscience, Poggio, brilliantly contrast the elegant, data-efficient learning of biological brains with the brute-force algorithms of modern AI, offering a vital roadmap for the future of artificial general intelligence."
—Christof Koch, neuroscientist, Allen Institute for Brain Science; Chief Scientist, Tiny Blue Dot Foundation

About the Author

Tomaso A. Poggiois Eugene McDermott Professor of Brain & Cognitive Sciences at MIT and the co-director of the NSF Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines at MIT. Among other awards he has received the 2009 Okawa Prize and the 2014 Swartz Prize. A founder of computational neuroscience, he is also a machine learning pioneer.

Marco Magriniis an Italian journalist and author. His book The Brain: A User’s Manual has been translated into ten languages, including Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese. He is a regular columnist for Geographical, the Royal Geographical Society’s magazine.

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