This chapter introduces the machine penalty and overviews the rest of the book. The machine penalty argument is that comparing AI to humans leads us to diminish similar outcomes from AI across situations. The penalty is caused by human–AI comparisons related to appearance, behavior, identity, mind, and essence, and whether the situation is controllable, personal, important, subjective, or moral. In this book, the penalty will be applied to giving advice, evaluating people, causing harm, producing art, and providing companionship. Its immediate consequences in those domains show how an advice penalty can reduce or enhance performance, a fairness penalty can check or fail to check bias, a blame penalty can erode or increase safety, a value penalty can cheapen or elevate creations, and a satisfaction penalty can produce real or fabricated love. This leads to downstream societal consequences for people, businesses, truth, human uniqueness, and relationships, as well as recommendations of how to respond to the penalty.