Artificial Intelligence: The Basics

Self improvement, computer science

I liked this book very much. It is easy to read and not so difficult to comprehend. However some parts of it I had to read two and three times and I am still not sure that I understood everything. But that depends on my shortcoming and has nothing to do with the style of Kevin Warwick. In my opinion this is a first class intro to AI and I would recommend it to young people who have to decide what to study at college. It might be that AI is the new shooting star after neuroscience. Still it seems to me that from a gender point of view AI would need some female input. Of all the literature recommended as a further read in Kevin Warwicks book there is no (!) book or article written by a female author. This seems the only shortcoming of this new scence. Is it the computing or the scientific approach that keeps women away from AI? I think like every other science AI would need the female input. Besides this general observationlet me give one more recommendation. An interesting article in Nature: "On creative machines and the physical origins of freedom" by Hans J. Briegel, doi: 10.1038/srep0052. I mention this because it seems to me that this is the direction which scientific research in AI should proceed: ethics and freedom of mind paired with responsibility, because as Kevin Warwick points out, robots have no conscience and that they never will stand up against humans is a myth which goes back to science fiction writer Isac Asimov (p.75). Apart of all this I want to stress that one of the highlights in Warwicks book are the building blocks: they reach from a definition of intelligence over classical AI to the philosophy of AI to biological AI and robotics. The different chapters start with a synopsis and end with recommended literature. All this together makes AI: The Basics worth reading and comprehending.

A very easy to read simplistic introduction to the field of Artificial Intelligence. The book covers a comprehensive variety of styles/approaches to artificial life and computational problem solving including optimization, data mining, agents,evolutionary system and so on. The content does not enter into particularly highly detailed examples (no maths/programming) of these principals, however the descriptions are thorough enough (in plain english) for any introductory readers, or those without prior knowledge to fully grasp the concepts being discussed.I would recommend this book to anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of the overall field of Artificially Intelligence, or for someone looking to get an idea of whats out there before diving into more complicated books.

I bought this book because by reading the table of contents, it was the only one who covered a all encompassing summarized perspective of the "history" and main concepts and variants of artificial intelligence, covering both classic and modern approaches to AI. It did what it promised but I found the book too abstract and overly theoretical. It's reasonably interesting, does give you an overall picture and leads you into investigating further into the many variants of AI. But I found sections to be unbalanced (some very light while others very thorough) and the sequence sometimes felt more like an amalgamation of themes than a solid association of subjects. It didn't come out clear to me, for instance, by following the examples, a clear distinction between the classic top-down approach and the modern bottom-up approach. Still, it's one of the few that attempts to introduce us to the whole story instead of focusing only in specific approaches. A three star to me.

Machines have caught up to and sometimes surpassed many aspects of intelligence that we once considered privileged human attributes. They are able to design and refine many components of their circuitry and instruction sets. Perhaps they will come to be conscious, intuitively creative and aesthetically aware. This book is a good introduction to inanimate objects that already extensively influence our daily lives and take over crucial decision making. If not kept in their appropriate place they may come to dominate us in undesirable ways. In clear and challenging prose this book opens non-technical eyes such as mine and is a stimulus for thought..

Well, hard to say that this is the 'best' book to begin with since this was my first. But I can assure you the it is a GREAT place to begin since it feels like an "Information Desk" where you can find where more information about a particular topic is. So if you are into Robotics or into Machine Learning or into ANN or GA, Cyborgs, or you just like AI but not sure what/who/where to begin? then this book will point you in the right direction. The recommendation he makes are so broad and targeted for practical and theoretical folks.

Good starting point for the top AI, I am not a native English speaker, but it was easy to understand. However to understand some topics in details you need to buy another book in the specific topic, but that's why it is called: The Basics. I can recommend this book for beginners.

A great book for people who wants to start learning AI. It's like a big introduction to everything.At the end of the book you won't learn how to do any of the algorithms, but you will know where to look for and what is it usefulness