Two of the best stories in the last anthology I reviewed by these two editors were by James P. Hogan and by Gary Braunbeck. This book also features a story each by those fellows, and they are again enjoyable works. Hogan's "Take Two" begins more or less where Frederik Pohl's classic "The Midas Plague" left off, with robots acting as consumers to maintain growth in the economy. But Hogan adds an heroic scientist who has developed a truly wise AI, and lets this AI take his concern for the place of robots in society to its logical extension. It is fast moving and fun, though Hogan does let his wise robot give mouth to a few of his hobby-horses. Braunbeck's "Fallen Faces by the Wayside" is a bit too full of wish-fulfillment to be wholly successful, but it is an enjoyable read. It tells of an amateur comic, whose specialty is impressions, who suddenly gets noticed and hired by a very rich man -- but for what purpose? And why does this man know so much about his past, and his murdered sister? The solution is emotionally satisfying, if, on logical grounds, a bit implausible. (Oddly, almost every character in the story has a last name beginning with B? I wonder if that was on purpose?)

The best story in the book might be the last and longest, "Power Play" by William H. Keith, Jr.  It is a story that reads very much like an Analog story, complete with entrepreneur/engineer hero, technical details of a mission to Uranus, and space boosterism. Charles Whittaker has formed the Helios Corporation to send AI spaceships to Uranus, there to harvest Helium-3 for use in inexpensive fusion plants. Just as he is on the brink of success, the evil entrenched corporations, using their puppet (the U.S. Government), come storming in to sabotage the mission. Is all hope lost? Well, the spaceships are AIs... It's a bit over the top, but it's a fast moving and fun action story, with a nice coda that fits the basic theme Segriff mentions in his introduction very well.

This isn't a great anthology, and it doesn't have any stories that I would call award candidates. About half the book is pretty enjoyable, with a few stories that say something interesting about AI, and a few stories that are mainly just fun, but rewarding enough in their way. The other half of the book is completely forgettable, which I suppose is not unusual for an anthology.