‘AI 2041’ warns readers about the future of AI

By Stacie Hueter

Artificial Intelligence went from a student’s homework dispenser to a technological behemoth that is threatening our society.

But it is not as if the development came from a vacuum: it has been boiling over for decades since the 1960s. From mimicking human voices, to generating videos, there is no doubt that AI is refining and expanding its capabilities. The rapid advancement of many generative AI platforms, such as Sora, Gemini and ChatGPT in the 2020s prompts public concern over the ethics of its usage. 

Many experts have attempted to warn people about the destructive potential of the technology if placed in the wrong hands. Two of these individuals include computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee and science-fiction writer Chen Qiufan in their 2021 book, “AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future.” As tech industry experts, they are not against AI, but they can imagine scenarios in which it could be taken too far. 

“AI 2041” contains a collection of 10 distinct short stories that cover different facets of artificial intelligence, such as deepfakes and deep machine learning. They all envision futures run by AI and automation, in which the characters experience the consequences. Lee and Qiufan then take turns analyzing the stories by providing scientific insight that helps readers understand how AI functions. 

I find it so interesting how many of Lee and Qiufan’s visions are already coming to fruition in today’s society, even if it has only been around four and a half years since the book was published. AI is more prevalent than ever for the human race, and it is important to identify its impact. 

Now, in 2026, I want to do a brief retrospective on their accuracy based on the AI advancements since its publication.

Lee prefaces the novel by objectively analyzing the rise of AI from the 2010s to early 2020s. Qiufan, on the other hand, talks about the importance of science fiction stories in this digital age of media. I agree with Lee’s conclusion of not letting emotions take over people’s evaluation of AI, and Qiufan’s of using fiction to conceptualize the future.

The first major point of the book that “AI 2041” emphasizes is optimization. The authors foresee AI taking over many industries, such as entertainment, finance and agriculture. 

Of course, being a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic, one story of this book focuses on AI use in the medical field. In “Contactless Love,” the protagonist, Chen Nan, is mysophobic. She relies on the “Disinfectionbot,” which is one of the robots created in the wake of the virus, to ensure her safety. 

In this story, the medical world has been revolutionized by AI bots that can cure mutations of the coronavirus instantly. However Chen Nan’s phobia prevents her from meeting her boyfriend, Garcia, in person. She learns by the end that her relationship with him will never flourish without genuine human connection. 

I find this story the most interesting to read retrospectively since it is one that has “already happened,” if you will. Most people generally consider the crisis to be over, but it is interesting to analyze how Qiufan and Lee imagined a post-COVID world down the line. 

People still need to travel outside for medicine and vaccines, but they believe that robots could simulate human interaction. It is a chilling cautionary tale for us not to lose the things that make us human. 

On that note, the most terrifying story to me was “My Haunting Idol.” It follows Aiko, a young girl who resurrects her dead idol, Hiroshi, to life as a technological “ghost.” Businesses then profit off Hiroshi’s virtual reality alter-ego, despite being dead. This demonstrates how far people are willing to push things when they find the means to. 

Recently, I have seen a concerning rise of VR and “VTuber” concerts featuring virtual avatars singing onstage instead of a traditional in-person singer with a microphone. It creates the same feeling of collective effervescence as a physical singer might trigger. However, it sparks debate over what constitutes a “genuine connection.”

Character AI, which is an application that allows the users to look up their favorite celebrities and fictional characters and text them as if they were real, tailors itself to each user based on their cookies and recommends bots based on their chat history. It was released just one year after this book’s publication. 

My favorite aspect of this book was the variety of cultural contexts that the authors interwove into their narratives. It helped me learn some history that I otherwise would not have picked up on. For example, “The Golden Elephant” story reveals India’s deep-rooted caste system through the allegory of a fictional AI insurance company, Ganesh, which hinders the relationship between two young students, Sahej and Nayana. 

Both authors did a stellar job coming up with abstract future scenarios where AI can be integrated that seems impossible for audiences reading this in 2026. As someone who is not well-versed in the science behind artificial intelligence and things like machine learning, this book was also an informative read. 

With the absurdities have surfaced because of AI, this book convinced me that this kind of technology will be more ubiquitous than I initially thought. Perhaps in only 15 years.  

I give the book four out of five stars.

Stacie Hueter is a freshman journalism major