Artificial Intelligence

A fascinating, richly illustrated journey through the history of artificial intelligence—and an honest assessment of our future alongside it.

Artificial intelligence has long been a mainstay of science fiction, and increasingly it feels as if AI is entering our everyday lives, with virtual personal assistants such as Apple’s Siri now ubiquitous and self-driving cars almost upon us. But what do we actually mean when we talk about artificial intelligence? In this comprehensive, beautifully illustrated account, AI expert Yorick Wilks traces the history of artificial intelligence back to its origins, examining not only how it works and why it was designed but also its controversies and achievements.

Along the way, Wilks also considers our future with AI, assessing whether these technologies will benefit humanity or merely menace our way of life. Are the sentient machines of 2001: A Space Odyssey or The Matrix plausible, or will real-world AI look and feel very different? What has AI done for us so far? What do we want it to do? And what technologies could it yield in the future? Entertaining, enlightening, and keenly argued, Artificial Intelligence: Modern Magic or Dangerous Future? is the essential guide to the AI debate.A Timeline of AI 6
1 What is Artificial Intelligence? 8
2 The Place of Logic in AI 30
3 Our First Encounters with AI: The World Wide Web 48
4 What is an AI Program Like? 68
5 Talking and Understanding: AI Speech and Language 82
6 Can AI Really Learn? 106
7 Robots and Computer Vision 132
8 Making Things Personal: Artificial Companions 150
9 The Companion as a Way into the Web 170
10 War, Ethics, Automation and Religion 188
11 Shutting Up Shop 214
Index 220
Acknowledgments 224Yorick Wilks was Emeritus Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sheffield, a research associate of the Oxford Internet Institute, and a Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute of Human and Machine Cognition. His books include Artificial Companions and Artificial Believers: The Ascription of Belief (with Afzal Ballim).