Thinking Machines: The Quest for Artificial Intelligence--and Where It's Taking Us Next

by Luke Dormehl

Overview

A fascinating look at Artificial Intelligence, from its humble Cold War beginnings to the dazzling future that is just around the corner.

When most of us think about Artificial Intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that Artificial Intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire.  In some ways, the future people dreamed of at the World's Fair in the 1960s is already here. We're teaching our machines how to think like humans, and they're learning at an incredible rate.

In Thinking Machines, technology journalist Luke Dormehl takes you through the history of AI and how it makes up the foundations of the machines that think for us today. Furthermore, Dormehl speculates on the incredible—and possibly terrifying—future that's much closer than many would imagine. This remarkable book will invite you to marvel at what now seems commonplace and to dream about a future in which the scope of humanity may need to broaden itself to include intelligent machines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143130581
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/07/2017
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

LUKE DORMEHL is a technology journalist, filmmaker and author, who has written for Fast Company, Wired, Consumer Reports, Politico, The L.A. Times, and other publications. He is also the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems... And Create More.

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Whatever Happened to Good Old-Fashioned AI?
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Thinking Machines"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Luke Dormehl.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
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Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Thinking Machines ix

1 Whatever Happened to Good Old-Fashioned AI? 1

2 Another Way to Build AI 29

3 Intelligence Is All Around Us 57

4 How May I Serve You? 89

5 How AI Put Our Jobs in Jeopardy 123

6 Can AI Be Creative? 153

7 In the Future There Will Be Mindclones 183

8 The Future (Risks) of Thinking Machines 211

Conclusion: Rise of the Robots 239

Author Interviews 245

Acknowledgments 247

Endnotes 249

Index 265

Editorial Reviews

Luke Dormehl is the rare lay person…who actually understands the science (and even the math) and is able to parse it in an edifying and exciting way. He is also a gifted storyteller who interweaves the personal stories with the broad history of artificial intelligence. I found myself turning the pages of Thinking Machines to find out what happens, even though I was there for much of it, and often in the very room…I recommend this book to anyone with a lay scientific background who wants to understand what I would argue is today's most important revolution, where it came from, how it works and what is on the horizon.

The New York Times Book Review - Ray Kurzweil

"Luke Dormehl is the rare lay person...who actually understands the science (and even the math) and is able to parse it in an edifying and exciting way...I recommend this book to anyone with a lay scientific background who wants to understand what I would argue is today’s most important revolution, where it came from, how it works and what is on the horizon."
—Ray Kurzweil, New York Times Book Review

"Exciting."
—TechCrunch

"Dormehl lets critics have their say but makes a convincing, often disturbing, but always-entertaining case that that we're in for a wild ride."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 

From the Publisher

02/15/2017
A few years ago, the question, "Can machines think?" would have been answered simply, no. Even the chess-playing program that could beat the best human player was only following a systematic evaluation of all possible positions based upon criteria inputted by its developers. It could not improve beyond that level or learn from experience, nor did it understand the intent of each play or even that it was engaged in a game. However, in this thought-provoking, clearly written book, journalist and filmmaker Dormehl (The Apple Revolution) describes how new programming techniques, such as the use of "evolutionary algorithms," allow a computer to develop its own strategies, improve through practice, come up with original ideas, and even find surprising solutions to unusual problems—that is, to become creative. The author also highlights some of the risks involved in our reliance on these machines, incorporating pertinent examples, including the stock market crash that was caused by machine trading. As we use more and more smart devices, linked through the Internet, these dangers are multiplied. Indeed, many people now worry about the singularity, or the point at which computers can design even smarter computers, which may attain self-awareness and go beyond our ability to control them. VERDICT For anyone interested in developments in the field of artificial intelligence, and a worthwhile acquisition for most libraries.—Harold D. Shane, Mathematics Emeritus, Baruch Coll. Lib., CUNY

Library Journal

★ 2016-12-14
A history of artificial intelligence and look at the "dazzling (near) future, the changes that lurk just around the corner, and how they will transform our lives forever."During the 1960s, AI seemed to be coming "out of cinemas and paperback novels and into reality," and then the tide receded. Now it's everywhere, in our iPhones, TVs, cars, and even refrigerators. It's a marvelous story, and technology journalist Dormehl (The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems…and Create More, 2015, etc.) does it justice. After World War II, when computers began calculating thousands and then millions of times faster than a human, enthusiasts predicted talking robots in a few decades. The author dubs this the era of "Good Old-fashioned AI." Sadly, brute-force calculating enabled a computer to play chess brilliantly, but it couldn't recognize a face, something every 2-month-old baby does. As Steven Pinker said, "the main lesson of the first thirty-five years of AI research is that the hard problems are easy and the easy problems are hard." By the 1980s, funding and media interest had shrunk, but younger scientists turned their attention from programming knowledge one piece at a time to systems that imitate the brain. These "neural networks" employ probability, feedback, potentiation, and inhibition to make sense of data. It works. Computers can't yet think, but they can learn. Google, founded in 1998, was one consequence. The powerful computer named Watson, which easily defeated the best Jeopardy contestants in 2011, succeeded by using analogy and trial and error, not massive stores of facts. This was "deep learning." Computers now recognize faces and the printed word, translate languages, consult other computers, and gather so much information that they can predict our behavior. Not everyone approves. Dormehl lets critics have their say but makes a convincing, often disturbing, but always-entertaining case that that we're in for a wild ride.

Kirkus Reviews