Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans

This program includes an introduction read by the author. No  recent scientific enterprise has proved as alluring, terrifying, and  filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks as artificial  intelligence. The award-winning author Melanie Mitchell, a leading  computer scientist, now reveals its turbulent history and the recent  surge of apparent successes, grand hopes, and emerging fears that  surround AI. In Artificial Intelligence, Mitchell turns to  the most urgent questions concerning AI today: How intelligent - really  - are the best AI programs? How do they work? What can they actually  do, and when do they fail? How humanlike do we expect them to become,  and how soon do we need to worry about them surpassing us? Along the  way, she introduces the dominant methods of modern AI and machine  learning, describing cutting-edge AI programs, their human inventors,  and the historical lines of thought that led to recent achievements. She  meets with fellow experts like Douglas Hofstadter, the cognitive  scientist and Pulitzer Prize - winning author of the modern classic Gödel, Escher, Bach,  who explains why he is “terrified” about the future of AI. She explores  the profound disconnect between the hype and the actual achievements in  AI, providing a clear sense of what the field has accomplished and how  much farther it has to go. Interweaving stories about the science and the people behind it, Artificial Intelligence brims with clear-sighted, captivating, and approachable accounts of the  most interesting and provocative modern work in AI, flavored with  Mitchell’s humor and personal observations. This frank, lively book will  prove an indispensable guide to understanding today’s AI, its quest for  “human-level” intelligence, and its impacts on all of our futures. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.