Book Review: Artificial Intelligence: A Very Short Introduction

Reviewed by paulml

Artificial Intelligence: A Very Short Introduction by Margaret A Boden, Oxford University Press, 2018, ISBN: 978-0199602919

Many advances in artificial intelligence have been made over the past several years, starting with Siri and Alexa, but much more remains to be done.  This book gives the details.

The science of AI involves many other sciences, including neurophysiology, logic, and psychology.  A major challenge is how to present a problem, or a question, to a computer in a way that the computer will understand.  Another challenge is how to show a computer things like emotion and creativity.  What is consciousness?  Is intelligence more than just IQ or the Turing test?

Robot designers have had better luck creating robots that resemble insects with six or eight legs than in creating robots that look human with two legs.  When is the singularity coming?  When is Skynet coming?  The general answer from this book is: not anytime soon.

This is a very well done introduction to the world of artificial intelligence.  Some of it gets rather technical, but most of it is good for the general reader.  It is very much recommended for anyone who wants to learn more about AI.