Who’s Afraid of AI? Fear and Promise in the Age of Thinking Machines

Description

A penetrating guide to artificial intelligence: what it is, what it does, and how it will change our lives. At a breathtaking pace, artificial intelligence is getting better and faster at making complex decisions. AI can already identify malignant tumors on CT scans, give legal advice, out-bluff the best poker players in the world, and, with ever-increasing skill, drive our cars. In Who's Afraid of AI?, award-winning author Thomas Ramge expertly explains how machines are learning to learn, and he questions what today's explosion of AI capability could mean for tomorrow: • Is it ethical to allow robots—endlessly patient—to replace human caregivers in providing comfort and companionship to the elderly? • Since AI feeds on big data, can we prevent its misuse by corporations or the government? • Will AI ever be capable of runaway self-improvement? And if "the singularity" does arrive, with AI's intelligence exponentially outpacing our own, what will become of us when, in many ways, we're obsolete? Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 Introduction......Page 8 Chapter 1: The Next Step of Automation: Machines Making Decisions......Page 16 Chapter 2: Turing's Heirs: A (Very) Short History of Artificial Intelligence......Page 38 Chapter 3: How Machines Learn to Learn: Artificial Neural Networks, Deep Learning, and Feedback Effects......Page 56 Chapter 4: Human Asks, Machine Answers: AI as a Daily Assistant, Salesperson, Lawyer, and Doctor......Page 70 Chapter 5: Robots as Coworkers: Smart Machines, Cobots, and the Internet of Intelligent Things......Page 88 Chapter 6: Superintelligence and the Singularity: Will Robots Seize Control?......Page 108 Selected Sources......Page 125 Acknowledgments......Page 128 About the Author......Page 129