Artificial Intelligence

“After reading Mitchell’s guide, you’ll know what you don’t know and what other people don’t know, even though they claim to know it. And that’s invaluable.” —The New York Times. A leading computer scientist brings human sense to the AI bubble. 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, reveals AI’s turbulent history and the recent spate of apparent successes, grand hopes, and emerging fears surrounding it. The book addresses urgent questions: How intelligent 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 when should we start to worry about them surpassing us? It introduces the dominant models of modern AI and machine learning, describing cutting-edge AI programs and their human inventors. The book conveys insights from fellow experts and explores the disconnect between hype and actual achievements in AI. It provides a clear sense of what the field has accomplished and how much further it has to go, mixed with engaging anecdotes and personal observations.