Artificial Intelligence:  What Is It? How Does It Work?  How Can You Leverage It?  What Are The Gotcha's?
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Artificial Intelligence:  What Is It? How Does It Work?  How Can You Leverage It?  What Are The Gotcha's?

Artificial Intelligence had been a field of study (and later a commercial venture) for about 50 years.  Giants like Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy have speculated and contributed real technology to it.  It has undergone periods of extreme enthusiasm and investment and AI Winter's when interest and financing lagged.  Now that a sustained investment in a confluence of technologies:  Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Chatbots, Driver-less Cars and Robotics are sustaining major investments it is vital to understand the whys and wherefores of these technologies. John Paul Muller and Luca Massaron are expert technologists who have written detailed technical books on programming and machine learning are herein answering (in an accurate and non-hyped way the real questions that are necessary to take advantage of these technologies and avoid the real pitfalls and issues which could prevent success.  This so-called Dummies Book avoids the Scylla and Charybdis of a too surface hyped description without any detail, and a in-depth programming and algorithms text designed to establish technical competence and which is only accessible to software engineers.  This easy to read,  but not too cursory text answers the real and important questions of what is this technology; what do I need to know to make it useful and obtain personal and business advantage from it?;  what are its drawbacks and stumbling blocks,?";  where are its advantages real benefits and where have they been over-hyped by the press?"

This book describes in depth the ideas and benefits behind Machine Leaning, Neural Network Algorithms, Robotics, Autonomous Vehicles and Chatbots and gives a realistic picture of what they can do and how they work.  While the authors have the technical know-how to write programming guides and textbooks they also have the instructional experience and journalistic skills to answer the questions needed to make real use of this promising, yet forbidding technology.
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Complexity is all around us.  How can we use it to our advantage?  The authors present a framework that allow "agents" (individuals, organizations, programs, etc.) or systems (interacting collections of agents) learn from their environment and thereby take advantage of complexity to grow, profit or reproduce.

The framework involves the continual improvement of "strategies" (instructions).  This improvement happens through variation and selection.  Some agents and systems allow modification of individual strategies, while others only allow change to agents, and implicitly, their package of strategies.

The framework clearly works.  Examples include evolution by natural selection, the Deming cycle, and wikis.  All these bring about good change through the framework described here, even if not explicitly.
607604
Interesting thoughts about future warfare. How dependent are we on foreign sources of supply and space-based navigation, communication and intelligence?  How do we leverage technologies to enhance human performance? Where do we let the automation take over and when do we have to keep a human in the loop?  See it play out and consider the implications. Well written, very enjoyable read!
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This book is about the construction of syntax theory. Why would someone (other than a linguist) want to know about that? I am constructing an intelligent web based agent, commonly known as a chatbot. Most chatbots are based on a set of ad hoc, limited rules in constructing answers from a human. Others use a series of canned responses. Most seem to be descendents from the original Eliza program, a computer based Rogerian therapist. Why Rogerian? It made it easy for the program to respond. Human: "I don't like cats." Rogerian Therapist: "Tell me more about why you don't like cats."
To make a "smarter" program, the system needs to have a large vocabulary and know more rules for how to construct sentences. This is where this book comes in handy. The introduction states "It is not so much a book about syntactic theory as it is an attempt to involve the reader in constructing syntactic theory" - that is my kind of book. It holds to this promise. The book covers sentence structure and transformations, and then what operations these transformation may perform. The books structure is perfect for someone coming from the viewpoint of wanting to create a system that can generate original, correct sentences in response to ad hoc inputs. The treatment in the book is not exhaustive but lays the groundwork for the reader to extend the models and is sufficient to build "version 1.0" of a more intelligent appearing chatbot.
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You may have heard about big data, the buzzword de jour that promises a lot of benefits, but perhaps not so much the phrase big mind. The concept of using collective intelligence to think at scale shouldnt be so unclear. What it means and how it is utilised, however, can be something else.

Enter this book, providing a credible and accessible look at the field of collective intelligence, considering how human and machine-minds can be harnessed to solve the big problems of the future. It is not, however, just a case of throwing resources at the problems. So-called smart technologies may be smart, in a limited scale, but they are not miracle workers. A multidisciplinary, multi-format approach is needed, and even then nothing is guaranteed. A room full of smart people does not necessarily mean that only smart decisions will emerge either: often the inverse happens!

Yet developments are happening at a seemingly breakneck speed. Even in my soon half-decade on this earth, things I couldn't imagine as a child as being reality are existing today. It is not so long ago that even getting live video, on a postage stamp-sized computer window, connected by modem was seen as amazing. Now we may complain when our high-definition or 4K video buffers or has an artefact, streamed from a 4G mobile phone when sitting in our garden. The ability to process massive amounts of data for good (and at times less-good) things is amazing too. All this is here today, but oh-so-much-more is waiting for the future and the real smart stuff may come with the next-generation of business, education and human thinking, aided by the technology developed at the same time.

Getting there, however So, this is a timely, enjoyable book. It gave a lot for both specialist and generalist alike. It was written to service both audiences and can really draw you in. The author has credibly analysed the status quo today and sought to consider how this evolution may continue to leverage tomorrows benefits, with collective collaborative intelligence at its core.

Consider this to be more of an essay about the scope and potential of the collective mind. It is not a typical textbook, although it can certainly be used to sustain and extend debate. Mankind has a great potential ahead of it, but also it has displayed the ability time after time to pursue evil rather than good. Inevitably some of the big mind developments will be used in a negative way, but hopefully positive developments will prevail. Of course, if the nirvana or threat of machines thinking for themselves and operating truly independently takes place  a machine with a brain and conscience  there is a risk that the fight between good and evil will then take place at the system level the stuff science-fiction can be made of.

This book is not a whacky science-fiction dreaming book. It has its collective insight firmly anchored to the ground, provoking thought and interest into a subject that has a lot of yet-to-be-realised potential. It is highly recommended and very more-ish!
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As other reviewers have pointed out, this book raises deep and important questions for researchers in Artificial Intelligence who wish to replicate human (or more, generally, animal) intelligence, and for others who fear that super-human AI is just around the corner. I have been working in Philosophy and AI for nearly 50 years and see huge gaps between current AI systems and human abilities that are ignored by most of my colleagues, e.g. the inability of current AI systems to make the kinds of discoveries in geometry and topology made several thousand years ago by ancient mathematicians. (Proving theorems using Euclid's axioms and modern theorem provers is totally different: Euclid's axioms and postulates were *discoveries* not arbitrarily selected logical expressions used to define a mathematical domain.)

Human toddlers, (some) nest-building birds, squirrels, elephants, octopuses and other animals show kinds of spatial reasoning intelligence used in motive formation, planning and plan execution without the masses of statistical learning current robots require (unless they are explicitly programmed by humans -- like the very impressive (but limited) BigDog robot of Boston dynamics -- I believe).

It is also the case that some high calibre neuroscientists have been arguing that far more goes on in each synapse than current models of neural learning assume,e.g. search for Seth Grant, Charles Gallistel, Patrick Trettenbrein (2016 -- in Frontiers of Neuroscience).

Nothing is definitely settled yet, but I'll be surprised if AI systems this century match the visual capabilities of intelligent animals able to perceive a new complex spatial structure and quickly work out a way to achieve something that they have not previously learnt to do, and can replicate the ancient mathematical discoveries of Archimedes, Euclid, Pythagoras, Zeno, and many others -- to say nothing of the design intelligence of human engineers planning construction of sky-scrapers never previously built, or planning the construction of the amazing new cross-London underground railway tunnel documented on BBC TV. (Of course *helped* by computers.)

I am not claiming that human-like, or squirrel-like AI is impossible, only that we are not as close as many people believe (or fear). E.g. it may require chemical computational mechanisms not yet dreamed of by AI researchers, but already used in brains.

Aaron Sloman
University of Birmingham, UK
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The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Will Artificial Intelligence Serve Us Or Replace Us? is a well written primer for those who are not familiar with the Singularity and the rapid rise of intelligent technology. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the future of humans. The book has made me more aware of the AI revolution now occurring. Here are some of my observations I made from my real life after reading this informative and understandable book -
On PBS now with Charlie Rose a geneticist is talking about the advances in gene sequencing and how using 3D printing in combination with a gene sequencer and can not only (Reed Hoffman) construct a human heart but construct one especially designed only to fit Charlie Rose and his genes and he also talked about how other scientists are figuring out how the brain works and making great progress of course using new intelligent technology and earlier today on a news program a quadriplegic woman had leaned how to take pictures with the Google glasses only using her mind to take the picture interfacing of course with intelligent technology.

Every day I go to Google translator online to translate my English not only into other languages but to listen to my words with audio translation in other languages. Google translate is amazing if you have never used it you should try. Another example of intelligent technology that has been around for years but getting better.

Today I do not type text messages into my phone to text my children. I talk into my smart phone and it automatically transfers my voice into written text using voice recognition software. Genomics an financial technology and that used in architecture and building software and in Curiosity rover doing science on Mars are just a very miniscule number of examples of intelligent technology in use today. I have interfaced much more with technology than with real humans almost every day for years. Hoffman is still on TV with Charlie Rose talking about dozens of new technologies coming up. No human can keep up with even a small sample size of the new intelligent technologies as they keep transforming and connecting and interconnecting with other intelligent technologies so quickly. I really think the Singularity is going to happen sooner than 20 years and humans will probably not even know when it happens as we are just not smart enough to understand it all.
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The work, inventions, and opinions of Ray Kurzweil in the field of artificial intelligence have captured media attention and the attention of philosophers and researchers in artificial intelligence. But not only is Kurzweil one of the most brilliant and controversial of all the individuals working in artificial intelligence, he is also the most optimistic. This optimism holds not only for the future technology of artificial intelligence, predicted by Kurzweil to give independent thinking machines in the next three decades, but also for its social impact. Kurzweil believes that artificial intelligence will work for the benefit of humankind, but that this benefit will depend to a great degree on his belief that humans will take on technology that will effectively make them cybernetic.
 The controversy behind Kurzweil stems from his recent book "The Age of Spirtual Machines", which is a detailed accounting of his predictions and beliefs regarding artificial intelligence. Many individuals objected to his visions and predictions, and he answers a few of them in this book. In particular, he attempts to counter the arguments against him by the philosopher John Searle, the molecular biologist Michael Denton, the philosopher William A. Dembski, and zoologist Thomas Ray. With only a few minor exceptions, Kurzweil is successful in his refutation of their assertions.
 But even if Kurzweil completely refutes the arguments of these individuals, and possibly many more against him, the countering of arguments will not by itself solve the problems in artificial intelligence research. The fact remains that much work still needs to be done before we are priveleged to see the rise of intelligent machines. Kurzweil is well-aware of this, for he acknowledges this many times in this book. He points to reverse engineering of the human brain as one of the most promising strategies to bring in the robotic presence. The success or failure of this strategy will take the mind-body problem out of purely academic circles and bring it to the forefront of practical research in artificial intelligence. The 21st century will thus see the rise of the "industrial philosopher", who works in the laboratory beside the programmers, cognitive scientists, robot engineers, and neurologists.
 Each reader of this book will of course have their own opinions on Kurzweil's degree of success in countering the arguments of Searle, Denton, Dembski, and Ray. But one thing is very clear: Kurzweil is no arm-chair philosopher engaging in purely academic debates on the mind-body problem. He is right in the thick of the research and development of artificial intelligence, and if the future turns out as he predicts, he will certainly be one of the individuals contributing to it. He and many others currently working in artificial intelligence are responsible for major advances in this field in just the last few years. Their ingenuity and discipline is admirable in a field that has experienced a roller coaster ride of confidence and disappointment in the preceding decades. All of these individuals have proved themselves to be superb thinking machines.
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One of the best books I've read on the current trends (circa 2010-2020) regarding upcoming technologies, its affect on work and how to begin adapting to the change.
- Machine: AI, Machine Learning, Creativity and combining forces of human thought and machine thought
- Platform: How the traditional products and services have been affected and altered by digital platforms, and how the integration of products and platforms is underway
- Crowd: How collaborative effort across the world is supplementing traditional organizations and R&D, and how to evolve to fit in the incming changeso

Really recommended reading!
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A fantastic book analysing the features of quality human learning. Not supposed to be a book about artificial intelligence, as per the misconception in other reviews.
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Max Tegmark certainly has the intellectual heft to weigh in on how artificial intelligence will affect natural intelligence -- in other words, us humans. An MIT professor of physics, he is at the top of his profession, and he does not limit his research and thinking to just his specialty of cosmology. He is also a futurist. But do he and the futurist "blurbers" for his book -- like Elon Musk (entrepreneur), Stephen Hawking (cosmologist), and Ray Kurzweil (inventor) -- really know any more about what the future holds than the rest of us?

I am not sure. While I enjoyed reading this book, when I was finished no ideas from the book stayed with me. It seemed mostly musing and gave me little meat to chew on. There was, too, a little too much name-dropping and talk about socializing with various people. All this amazing thinking going on by the most amazing people at the most amazing conferences! It's just amazing!

It struck me too as odd that Max Tegmark thinks now is the most crucial time in human history, perhaps in hundreds of thousands of years, or even millions, or even billions. Indeed, not just human history, but the history of the Universe. What we do now, he says, will determine whether life in our Universe fulfills its potential or squanders it. We can make the future of life truly awesome if we make the right choices. Otherwise, yuck.

How lucky then that Max Tegmark has given us this book and his "Future of Life" website, and that Elon Musk has donated $10 million, all to save the Universe. And Larry Page is helping too. Just like superheroes!

I'm joking, of course, and Max Tegmark makes more serious points in his book than seems from my attempt at humor. But it is really hard to predict just how the future will turn out. That makes it hard to decide what we should do now, and makes it easy to infuse our decisions with an importance they do not have.

I remember Norbert Wiener's book&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Human-Use-of-Human-Beings-Cybernetics-and-Society/dp/1853430757/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society</a>, and how both American capitalism and Soviet communism then (in 1950) seemed to mean doom for humanity. Decisions had to be made, he thundered. "The hour is very late, and the choice of good and evil knocks at our door." Norbert Wiener quotes those words, but they were first written by Bernard of Cluny in about 1140, and they echo throughout the ages. It always seems that an epochal crisis looms. But one never does.

Max Tegmark does pull together a lot of interesting facts and thinking in this book, The only problem was that it all seemed an inch deep and a mile wide and leading to no clear destination. Of course, maybe to understand the issues with superintelligence you have to be superintelligent, like Max Tegmark and the "great minds" he pals around with. In that case, I (unfortunately) am out of luck.
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This book is for you.  It explains how the mind works and techniques to improve it.  Most of the techniques to improve the can also be found in How To's like "speed read, or get super memory" using the peg system.  This book was worth its purchase because it added the aha....! To the peg system or other associative memory systems.  Very good book.
241349
Very good read for anyone interested in artificial intelligence and where that might take us. Spiced with suspense and intrigue.
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I found this book to be fascinating as well as disturbing.

I'd always thought of AI as mainly being manifested in robots, becoming increasingly human-like in features as technology advanced. Movies come to mind in which these devices are sophisticated to the point of being difficult, if not impossible to detect from real humans - such as in the movie Blade Runner. As author Yonck points out, in order to be convincing, devices need to possess emotional intelligence as well, since our wide range of emotions is what sets us apart from other species.

This book provides a broad overview of not only such devices, but also devices that interface with people to alter their emotions, and even integrate to create a hybrid human/machine individual.

Yonck discusses various ways in which these interactions affect humanity, in both the good ways that are intended and also the inevitable malevolent ways that are bound to arise, same as any technology that is introduced into this world. The author maintains an objective approach, giving examples of both good and bad rather than posing any particular view or judgment of the AI means that are employed.

As I said above, the scenarios are fascinating but I also said I found them disturbing because it seems to me that no matter what technology is presented for the good, there are those who will misuse it. With technology increasing at an exponential rate, so does the potential for global damage that takes us beyond the possibility of recovery. At least that's my gloomy gus two cents on the matter.  Yonck quips that once the genie has been let out of the lamp, it's too late to put it back in. The way I see it, the path of AI, guided by human nature, will end up building another Tower of Babel. Those scenarios you see in movies like the Terminator - that's what I envision.

Editorializing aside, I found the book really interesting because of all the ways the author presented for utilizing AI and in a well-written, easy to read manner. It really got me thinking about the consequences of implementing these technologies and like I said, ultimately I think it bodes more ill than benefits. But give the book a read - whatever your viewpoint, it's great for providing coverage of the current status of AI and where it is likely to go from here.
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You really can tell that Jeremy Blum really wants you to know how to make, hack, and share ideas using arduino. After reading this book I look at everything differently. How can I automate changing my baby's diaper? how many times do I open my bedroom door a week? Is there a direct correlation between my diet and the amount of methane in my bedroom. In what way would connecting 127 arduinos together help me scare people for halloween? Why did I spend 100 grand on college when I could have just bought this book? These are some of the questions I couldn't help but to ask my self while reading and breadboarding. If you would like a free trial of the Jeremy Blum method check out his Arduino tutorial series on youtube.
2188741
Morality of machines is a topic, but I am more interested in how to use AI, then the moral implications of it. This ok, if you want to argue about whether machines will /should have conscience.
4080105
I thoroughly enjoyed this well thought out primer on AI and the potential effects it can have on all of us in the very near future.  I particularly liked the way it was able to delve into deeper explanation of the concepts that were introduced in the fiction prelude to this one, "Pandora's Brain".  I highly recommend to anyone interested in AI to add this one to their collection!