Why Machines Learn

The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI

By: Anil Ananthaswamy

Narrated by: Rene Ruiz

A rich, narrative explanation of the mathematics that has brought us machine learning and the ongoing explosion of artificial intelligence

Machine learning systems are making life-altering decisions for us: approving mortgage loans, determining whether a tumour is cancerous, or deciding whether someone gets bail. They now influence developments and discoveries in chemistry, biology, and physics—the study of genomes, extra-solar planets, even the intricacies of quantum systems. And all this before large language models such as ChatGPT came on the scene.

We are living through a revolution in machine learning-powered AI that shows no signs of slowing down. This technology is based on relatively simple mathematical ideas, some of which go back centuries, including linear algebra and calculus, the stuff of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mathematics. It took the birth and advancement of computer science and the kindling of 1990s computer chips designed for video games to ignite the explosion of AI that we see today. In this enlightening book, Anil Ananthaswamy explains the fundamental math behind machine learning, while suggesting intriguing links between artifical and natural intelligence. Might the same math underpin them both?

As Ananthaswamy resonantly concludes, to make safe and effective use of artificial intelligence, we need to understand its profound capabilities and limitations, the clues to which lie in the math that makes machine learning possible.

*This audiobook contains a PDF of equations, graphs, and illustrations.

Great history, hard to digest via audiobook

A lot of cool moments in the past century have led to AI’s current state, and this book does a great job capturing those moments with a glimpse into the math behind the breakthroughs. However, if you’ve taken ML/AI courses, you have already encountered a majority of the content in a more applied manner than the high-level proofs included here. An interesting read undoubtedly, but not the groundbreaking guide you might be looking for to understand & reverse-engineer why machines learn for your own career.

Great book

Very in-depth. Following the pdf is a must if you want to understand the math, but not if you want the general ideas and the stories behind them.

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!

I enjoyed this Audible audiobook, and of course, the accompanying download of the pdf information of formulas, plots, charts, etc much much more than I thought I would. It was a very slow read for me but that made it more enjoyable for me. I hope to listen to other audiobooks written by this author.

I am extremely visually impaired (around 20/3,000 to 20/7,000) but the audio made it possible for me to hear the text while the pdf information was displayed on the largest tablet screen I could find. I hope this provides an answer to some of the one-star reviews who seemed angry about why this particular book was even made as an audiobook-- and why some of us are really very glad it is available in an audio edition. Thank you, Audible for making it!

challenging as an audiobook

I have a strong math and computer science background and am far from a novice in this area, yet I found this book quite difficult to consume as an audiobook. There is an accompanying PDF with figures and equations, but trying to listen without it (while driving, cleaning, exercising, etc.) is hard even for someone with a strong math background. You want to be able to study an equation or figure, read the text about it, and go back and forth until you fully track, and this can't really be done in audiobook format. Often the text will refer to a figure without fully describing it. I have listened to other technical audiobooks and either been able to skip the PDF or review it earlier or later, but this book was too hard to follow with audio alone. I also thought it was a bit odd that the author tries to be very gentle about the math when the math includes calculus and linear algebra. I think people who need the math to be gentle are probably not the target audience. That said, a gentle review of some concept I hadn't had since college > 30 years ago was helpful. I think I would enjoy this book in print form. If you want to know the math and physically can't consume a printed book, be prepared to do a lot of rewinding. For everyone else, I recommend skipping the audiobook and going to a print version.

Great listen, but keep the PDF handy.

There is a lot of math, so pay attention. I found I needed to reference the PDF throughout the book if I really wanted to understand what the chapter was trying to say.