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10 Short Lessons in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
'A lucid, balanced and engaging tour of one of the most important phenomena of this century.' – Steven Pinker
From the face recognition on your smartphone to the management of our global economy, you cannot live in the modern world without interacting with, or being impacted by, artificial intelligence and robots. But how did this happen? And what does it mean for our lives now and in the future? Is it helping to change our world for the better or creating new problems? 10 Short Lessons in Artificial Intelligence & Robotics examines these key questions and more in this essential guide to the twenty-first century’s most powerful technology.
About the series: The Pocket Einstein series is a collection of essential pocket-sized guides for anyone looking to understand a little more about some of the most relevant science that affects us all in the twenty-first century. Broken down into ten simple lessons and written by leading experts in their field, discover the ten most important takeaways from those areas of science we should all know more about.
From the face recognition on your smartphone to the management of our global economy, you cannot live in the modern world without interacting with, or being impacted by, artificial intelligence and robots. But how did this happen? And what does it mean for our lives now and in the future? Is it helping to change our world for the better or creating new problems? 10 Short Lessons in Artificial Intelligence & Robotics examines these key questions and more in this essential guide to the twenty-first century’s most powerful technology.
About the series: The Pocket Einstein series is a collection of essential pocket-sized guides for anyone looking to understand a little more about some of the most relevant science that affects us all in the twenty-first century. Broken down into ten simple lessons and written by leading experts in their field, discover the ten most important takeaways from those areas of science we should all know more about.
Hardcover
Published June 11, 2020
9 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Peter J. Bentley
37 books13 followersDr Peter Bentley is an Honorary Reader and Senior College Teacher at the Department of Computer Science, University College London and is known for his research covering all aspects of Evolutionary Computation and Digital Biology. He is the author of the popular science books Digital Biology, The Undercover Scientist and Digitized, and editor of the books Evolutionary Design by Computers, Creative Evolutionary Systems and On Growth, Form and Computers.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 11, 2020
Another handsome little hardback in the '10 short lessons' format that manages to pack in a surprising amount of information. AI is a subject where it's easy to get carried away with enthusiasm for the wonders of the subject, so we end up with much marvelling about too little substance - a trait that has dogged the AI profession leading a couple of 'winters' where it over-promised and under-delivered. Thankfully, Peter Bentley largely avoids this trap. Although he is certainly broadly positive about the topic, he does make some of the shortcomings clear.
The book is genuinely interesting and carries the reader along with a light touch that never betrays the author's academic background - it is a heartfelt compliment that this is a book by a professor that feels like it was written by a science writer. We get a good mix of the history with a brief explanation of how the technology works and a broad exploration of applications, both what has already been achieved and what may be possible.
Bentley manages to squeeze in robotics as well as AI, which was interesting as there have been a lot of books on AI of late, but not so many on robots - both what they do well and what they do badly. Here, as elsewhere, Bentley gives us a really good insight into the history and background. On the AI side, there is good mix of the different approaches, and a reasonable suppression of the inclination of some to over-worry about impending AI doom as the things become more intelligent than us and take over the world. As someone else said, it's more artificial unintelligence - brilliant at specific tasks, but lacking the core of what we would largely regard as intelligent ability.
Inevitably, there are few things that could be done differently. The explanation of neural networks is just a bit too simple to really understand what's going on. And although Bentley doesn't whitewash the field, mentioning, for example, that it could be a long time before we accept autonomous cars, he doesn't entirely address the transparency problem - not understanding how an AI came to a decision, making it difficult to assess whether it made a mistake - or the ease with which these algorithms can be fooled. Also we are told, for example, of how brilliant AIs are now at image recognition, but Bentley doesn't really explore the way they require millions of examples to get it right, where a child can do it with a handful of examples.
There is always a danger with this kind of quick-and-simple introduction book that it feels like the author is talking down to the reader. This doesn't happen at all here - although it could comfortably be read by an interested teenager, it really does feel like a book that is addressed to adults, taking on a complex topic with a comfortable ease. Ideal for a commuting read or a relaxing evening listening to music provided by an AI system.
The book is genuinely interesting and carries the reader along with a light touch that never betrays the author's academic background - it is a heartfelt compliment that this is a book by a professor that feels like it was written by a science writer. We get a good mix of the history with a brief explanation of how the technology works and a broad exploration of applications, both what has already been achieved and what may be possible.
Bentley manages to squeeze in robotics as well as AI, which was interesting as there have been a lot of books on AI of late, but not so many on robots - both what they do well and what they do badly. Here, as elsewhere, Bentley gives us a really good insight into the history and background. On the AI side, there is good mix of the different approaches, and a reasonable suppression of the inclination of some to over-worry about impending AI doom as the things become more intelligent than us and take over the world. As someone else said, it's more artificial unintelligence - brilliant at specific tasks, but lacking the core of what we would largely regard as intelligent ability.
Inevitably, there are few things that could be done differently. The explanation of neural networks is just a bit too simple to really understand what's going on. And although Bentley doesn't whitewash the field, mentioning, for example, that it could be a long time before we accept autonomous cars, he doesn't entirely address the transparency problem - not understanding how an AI came to a decision, making it difficult to assess whether it made a mistake - or the ease with which these algorithms can be fooled. Also we are told, for example, of how brilliant AIs are now at image recognition, but Bentley doesn't really explore the way they require millions of examples to get it right, where a child can do it with a handful of examples.
There is always a danger with this kind of quick-and-simple introduction book that it feels like the author is talking down to the reader. This doesn't happen at all here - although it could comfortably be read by an interested teenager, it really does feel like a book that is addressed to adults, taking on a complex topic with a comfortable ease. Ideal for a commuting read or a relaxing evening listening to music provided by an AI system.
July 19, 2020
Short and sweet. If you don’t know anything about Artificial Intelligence (AI), as I didn’t, then this book is an excellent summary. Some history of the subject and the current status. Of course, as a non-expert I may possibly be mistaken in my judgement but I enjoyed it anyway!
It introduced me to a range of different approaches used to interpret knowledge bases, to understand speech, to see the world through computer eyes. Mainly a discussion of algorithms rather than hardware. Neural networks were especially interesting and even more so the cases where the network is allowed to develop its own architecture in a pseudo-evolutionary way. As a summary you get the key buzz-words, an explanation but nothing I felt was over-detailed. There’s some discussion on robots but far more on their ‘intelligence‘ issues, how to navigate and interface with us than on the mechanics of making one.
The author also covered issues that are not AI in my own definition - but examples of how powerful computers can simulate and model reality. It was a light skip over the subject as intended in such a book but, maybe as an engineer, I did feel it didn’t emphasise how deeply computer modelling such as finite element, and intelligent CAD systems now dominate engineering design.
The author is not one of those who believes a Terminator style apocalypse due to super intelligent machines is just around the corner. He’s cynical about any claims of that sort (one latest prediction is for about 2045!), pointing out past over-enthusiastic predictions for AI followed by loss of funding (AI Winters). Nonetheless the current examples he gives supports his view that we are in a golden age of AI. He also presents some of the dangers as well as benefits.
Certainly recommended for anyone looking for a short summary on AI - but isn’t already knowledgable on the subject.
It introduced me to a range of different approaches used to interpret knowledge bases, to understand speech, to see the world through computer eyes. Mainly a discussion of algorithms rather than hardware. Neural networks were especially interesting and even more so the cases where the network is allowed to develop its own architecture in a pseudo-evolutionary way. As a summary you get the key buzz-words, an explanation but nothing I felt was over-detailed. There’s some discussion on robots but far more on their ‘intelligence‘ issues, how to navigate and interface with us than on the mechanics of making one.
The author also covered issues that are not AI in my own definition - but examples of how powerful computers can simulate and model reality. It was a light skip over the subject as intended in such a book but, maybe as an engineer, I did feel it didn’t emphasise how deeply computer modelling such as finite element, and intelligent CAD systems now dominate engineering design.
The author is not one of those who believes a Terminator style apocalypse due to super intelligent machines is just around the corner. He’s cynical about any claims of that sort (one latest prediction is for about 2045!), pointing out past over-enthusiastic predictions for AI followed by loss of funding (AI Winters). Nonetheless the current examples he gives supports his view that we are in a golden age of AI. He also presents some of the dangers as well as benefits.
Certainly recommended for anyone looking for a short summary on AI - but isn’t already knowledgable on the subject.
July 24, 2023
“Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.”
― Terry Pratchett
― Terry Pratchett
May 10, 2024
Nội dung chưa thấm mình lắm. Mình cũng chưa có ý định đọc lại trong thời gian gần.
Có thể sau này khi mình có nhiều kiến thức hơn mình sẽ thử đọc lại xem sao.
Đoạn kết chương cuối cùng hay!
Có thể sau này khi mình có nhiều kiến thức hơn mình sẽ thử đọc lại xem sao.
Đoạn kết chương cuối cùng hay!
August 16, 2023
Introductorio y reflexivo, este libro incluye varios datos interesantes sobre el uso y las aplicaciones cotidianas de la robótica y la inteligencia artificial, así como una guía sencilla del desarrollo histórico de las mismas.
April 26, 2023
Necessarily basic due to being a short overview. A good introduction but less suitable for those who have already read on autonomy and artificial intelligence.
January 15, 2024
Good non technical introduction to AI for anyone interested
July 2, 2025
Genel konseptlere bakış için ideal bir kitap. Alana yönelik bazı temel terimlere aşinalık kazandırması açısından yararlı buldum. İleri okumalar ve sözlük bölümünden de fayda sağladım.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews