Artificial Intelligence: A Brief History of the Future

Behind the loud headlines about the uprising of machines lies a pragmatic reality: modern AI is the result of a fusion of vast data, powerful chips, and algorithms inspired by nature. Today, neural networks surround us everywhere, from chatbots to marketing posters and even book covers. Renowned artificial intelligence expert Toby Walsh guides the reader through decades of the ups and downs of artificial intelligence: from the first programs and codes to neural networks writing sonnets in the style of Shakespeare. The author demonstrates how six simple ideas—from navigation on maps to Bayesian probability—have evolved into technologies that drive autonomous vehicles and are capable of diagnosing diseases. This is an astonishing story not so much about technologies as it is about humanity's eternal attempts to understand and replicate the nature of its own unfathomable mind.