Advanced Lessons in Artificial Intelligence: A Technical Novel and a Readable Primer

Book excerpt: There are a lot of people that are worried about artificial intelligence, where artificial intelligence is commonly regarded as the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if performed by humans. Primarily, they think that the adoption of that technology will cause them to lose their jobs, and they will not have anywhere to go for employment. The computer will be doing everything from scrubbing the floor to running an investment bank, and all that is in between. These are primarily educated people who thought they were okay for their entire life. And, it’s not like the bookkeeping and word processing jobs of years ago. It’s everything. Really everything. To boot, you hear statements like, “That could be true that you might lose your job, unless you know AI,” where the acronym AI stands for the two terrible words, artificial intelligence. It is something to worry about, even though deep down, you probably realize it isn’t going to be true. Somehow, the government will take of it. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, as I said, and we will use those two letters throughout this volume. AI books are simply hard to read, and authors like to throw around unfamiliar terms like neuron, cognitive science, and Singularity, and sooner or later, they will end up with some math, and there are many people that don’t like math. They could do math if they need to, but they prefer not to. Moreover, it is hard to remember the subject when it is just thrown at you, like you should love it to death. This book uses dialog to ease the pain. The first book is an easy-to-read novel with AI thrown in when appropriate, or it is an AI book with the novel thrown in when the AI is getting sketchy. You can share their misgivings. We have added something more to help you with the subject matter of the first book. We have included a supplemental book. The second book is a pure and simple AI Primer, and we mean really simple, when you like what you’ve read about AI in the technical/novel first part, and you want to get into it more fully. There is another option. You could read the Primer first and then read the novel part for enjoyment and to find out how the people in the first book are getting along with AI. You will be surprised. The volume, that is both books, is a good bargain that you could share with your family or give to a friend. The books contain no violence, no sex, and no bad language, and is suitable to readers of all ages. I hope you enjoy it!