Artificial Intelligence

A Guide for Thinking Humans

By: Melanie Mitchell

Narrated by: Abby Craden, Melanie Mitchell, Tony Wolf

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

©2019 Melanie Mitchell (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Start understanding AI right here!

As a high school computer science teacher, I have found that this book is doing what no other resource could do for me... make AI comprehendible in a way I can share and discuss with high school students. Mixed with some AI activities that I am getting from a secondary source, I am now on my way to creating an introductory AI unit that will help students understand better the world of AI and what is really happening as all of our appliances, cars, and the general world appear to get smarter around us.

Great

Great book, easy to understand and gives a very prtactical overview of the subject, strongly recommended.

clear, informative, reasonable, excellent

The reader gets a good overview (although I would assume at a pretty basic level), of where artificial intelligence and machine learning are positioned at present. The book is neither too easy not too hard. On the whole, hers is a sensible and somewhat deflationary (compared to many popular accounts) account of the powers of artificial intelligence and machine learning now and in the foreseeable future.

Clear, informative and entertaining

this is a wise book. it explains the major endeavours in AI in a clear and accessible way for non experts and non native speakers of English. At the same time the author gives an in depth view of the achievements, challenges and methods used in AI research, warning the reader about the risks involved. As a linguist I personally found this book amazing. The author has a realistic and well grounded view on AI, which is highly appreciated among too many sensational books on this topic.

Very good!

This is a great overview of artificial intelligence! Was very useful, informative and interesting

An excellent analysis of modern AI

Mitchell does a fantastic job explaining where AI is and why. The examples on the book illustrate the problems researchers are facing and why these problems are so challenging. I would strongly recommend this to anyone who is interested in AI and would like to understand how it works. After reading this I am both more optimistic and more concerned about what affects future AI may have on humanity. Thanks to Sean Carroll for recommending this in his Mindscape podcast.

Best Balanced Conceptual DS ML AI Book!

Fabulous book. As a practicing Data Scientist and former Science Teacher, this is a highly recommended survey and commentary on key topics.

Excellent review and introduction!

Excellent review and introduction on this otherwise complex and emerging topic. Narrator was very natural.

Decent

Decent primer on the past, present and future of AI. Contained too much fluff for me.

Superb

I highly recommend his book. It provides a great overview of AI and the challenges the field faces.

Ultimate overview of the state of AI in 2019

This was a pure joy to listen. Great writing, great reading. Clearly explained concepts, lots of examples, engaging, up to date. No word was wasted.

A perfect introduction to AI

I cannot recommend this book enough. Melanie Mitchell takes you on a beautifully choreographed journey through the field of AI from its inception to the present day. A must read for anyone with a desire to understand AI and its implications for the future.

easy read

book was good and informative on general knowledge of AI. You will not learn to program AI programs by reading this book. narrator was brilliant, pleasant voice

SYMBIOSIS

i wonder if human intelligence plus artificial intelligence will equal a new type of intelligence