Review: Buzzati’s ‘The Singularity’: The Sci-Fi Novella That Got AI (Mostly) Right

Review: Buzzati’s ‘The Singularity’: The Sci-Fi Novella That Got AI (Mostly) Right

“A secret military project. A vast artificial mind. Questions of consciousness. These form the premise of Dino Buzzati’s The Singularity, originally published in 1960 at the dawn of the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The novella follows Italian scientist Ermanno Ismani, summoned by the Ministry of Defense to work on a top-secret project, as he ventures with his wife, Elisa, to a sprawling machine hidden in the mountains of the Italian countryside. The machine’s intelligence far surpasses that of humans—and its creators claim that the machine has come alive.”

_{August 05, 2024 at 11:57AM}