Congratulations to Jerry Kaplan, CodeX Fellow, whose new book, “Humans Need Not Apply” is now available—and is getting a lot of traction!

Friday, Kaplan’s essay, “Can We Create an Ethical Robot?” ran in the Wall Street Journal Friday (subscription required). It’s adapted from the new book, which officially launches on August 4, from Yale University Press, but is already available on Amazon.

Kaplan explores some of the connundrums of artificial intelligence. For example, “Self-driving cars are merely the vanguard of an approaching fleet of equally autonomous devices. As these systems increasingly invade human domains, the need to control what they are permitted to do, and on whose behalf, will become more acute.”

“How will you feel the first time a driverless car zips ahead of you to take the parking spot you have been patiently waiting for? Or when a robot buys the last dozen muffins at Starbucks while a crowd of hungry patrons looks on? Should your mechanical valet be allowed to stand in line for you, or vote for you?”

Continuing the good news, Kaplan said that he’s scheduled to appear on PBS Newshour this Thursday evening, in the “Making Sense of Financial News” segment! The topic: “flexible robotics and labor markets,” he notes.

Kaplan is a visiting lecturer at Stanford’s Department of Computer Science. He describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur, executive, technical innovator, and author.” Kaplan also co-founded several Silicon Valley companies. Check out his CodeX bio here.

Keep an eye on the CodeX blog for more about Kaplan!

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a member of the California bar. Twitter: @MonicaBay Email: mbay@stanford.edu.