AI ebook cover design brainstorming

Planet Earth, turning into paperclips. This has the potential to become an iconic image.

A human and something much less intelligent than a human.

The concept I think would important/effective to convey is the scope of the vast capability gap between the human mind and a sufficiently advanced AI.

The image that comes to my mind is (a slide from one of EY's talks) of a continuum showing the village idiot & Einstein to the left as cognitively near-equals, and AI waaaaaaay over to the right toward the I'm-so-smart-it-is-scary zone.

• A dark close-up of a security camera. In its lens you can see a threatened-looking human.
• A chess board, human pieces vs robotic. The human is in checkmate.
• An opened laptop on top of a pile of skulls.
• A robotic hand grasping the world. See 1, 2

A depressed-looking scientist putting his stuff (books, papers, funny gizmos) in a cardboard box on his desk. Behind him, a huge mainframe computer. In the background, screens showing complicated diagrams, and robot hands manipulating chemistry equipment.

An advanced, automated chemistry/physics lab: robot arms and cameras everywhere, particle accelerator, beakers, tubes all over the place, QR codes. Nothing that looks made for humans.

I would vote against any kind of chess metaphor - when I think of chess-based AI I think of faster CPU power giving faster searches of possible solutions, rather than the impression of "true" intelligence (avoiding the definition of what that actually is for now).

Only idea I had was the image you see a lot of developing humans - like the chain of apes to humans, but with the robot at the end. That could be played straight with the robot facing right with the implication of replacing the previous generations, or played more sinisterly with the robot turned back to look at the last human with a menacing or indifferent expression. Alternatively, have several robot generations getting more unrecognisable but include a timeline linked to the previous generations to show the speed new generations are developing. But it's maybe been overused for humour at this point.

A human looking at an ape with a smirk, in a zoo. (one half) A computer "looking" at a human, with a smirk, at home. (the other half) It would have to be cartoony for the computer to "smirk"

A shot of an abandoned chess board with the king toppled (optional: and a robot hand shaking with a human).

or

A chess board with one grain of rice on the corner, two next to it, then four, (...) until the board and surrounding world is rice.

I'd go for chess or similar since people already associate chess with "computers are better than humans at this game of smarts." Still, it's cliched so maybe you want something less so. As for the examples, 1 will look really campy, 2 is uninteresting, 3 is okay, and 4 is good.

What we need now are suggestions for a book cover design. AI is hard to depict without falling back on cliches, such as a brain image mixed with computer circuitry, a humanoid robot, HAL, an imitation of Creation of Adam with human and robot fingers touching, or an imitation of March of Progress with an AI at the far right.

I like to point out that a several studies on design fixation indicate that describing solutions that you don't want but seem relevenat to the problem can be counterproductive. Also, the postive examples coming before

We think we want something kinda dramatic, rather than cartoony, but less epic and unbelievable than the Facing the Intelligence Explosion cover.

seems like a case of failing to hold off proposing solutions.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/.a/6a00d8341bf7f753ef019affc63311970d-800wi

My first thought was that cartoon where a human is listing things only a human can do, with all the things computers can already do falling to the floor.

I tried to search for the image, then found out that I originally saw it in lukeprog's Intelligence Explosion book. So I guess you know about it.

Still, it's a great image: http://intelligenceexplosion.com/2011/superstition-in-retreat/

A humanoid robot in a lab coat, building an even more impressive-looking robot (but less human-like), in a workshop with scattered high-tech stuff. On a whiteboard, advanced-looking designs and diagrams.

or

An evolution of different kinds of writing:

• chalk writing and glyphs on a wall
• elaborate pen writing (Shakespeare or something)
• A kind of brainstormingish diagram on a whiteboard, written with colored pens and doodly drawings
• a dense and complex diagram, that doesn't look produced by a human (QR codes instead of writing, very abstract

or

A high-tech futuristic city, but without anything human-related or human-understandable (cables and pipes and QR codes yes, windows and writing and posters no). On the ground, a few scattered human bones.

Of a dark, scfi-fi blue hue:
Extending from the left towards the centre of the cover is a translucent plastic computer screen we view from behind, through which we see complicated code displayed in white text. Beyond the screen is arena seating, reminiscent of the UN, with world leaders's heads fallen dead at their desks, beside their country's flag-emblazoned name plate.

Could somebody create a poll for the above options?

Hmmm... Here are some that focus on AI risk...

How about some scientists looking at a monitor (which is turned away from the reader) with mixed expressions of wonder, shock, horror, and confusion. Possibly you could have one of the researchers desperately trying to smash the computer or turn it off, while another is desperately trying to hold him back. Sort of trying to capture the failure of a real-life AI boxing...

A little more dramatic: A group of police or soldiers who appear to be arresting a server farm. One of them can see a monitor and looks really, really, panicked, or defeated, or is just facepalming.

A scary-looking Terminator-like cyborg, but dressed in a tuxedo or something, handing a (turned away) paper to a human. Either the human could be really confused or shocked or something, or the cyborg could be making a creepy "I am not left-handed" smile.

Not Exactly a march of progress line, but something like a chimp and einstein on one corner and a server rack on the far end. Similar to the line diagram used in the sequences to illustrate how much of a difference we;re looking at. We are looking at appealing to numerate people, so it should not be overkill to have a graph.