John Paul Mueller - Artificial Intelligence For Dummies

Artificial Intelligence For Dummies

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Copyright 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number is available from the publisher: 2018934159

ISBN: 978-1-119-46765-6; ISBN: 978-1-119-46758-8 (ebk); ISBN: 978-1-119-46762-5 (ebk)

You can hardly avoid encountering mentions of AI today. You see AI in the movies, in books, in the news, and online. AI is part of robots, self-driving cars, drones, medical systems, online shopping sites, and all sorts of other technologies that affect your daily life in so many ways.

Many pundits are burying you in information (and disinformation) about AI, too. Some see AI as cute and fuzzy; others see it as a potential mass murderer of the human race. The problem with being so loaded down with information in so many ways is that you struggle to separate whats real from what is simply the product of an overactive imagination. Much of the hype about AI originates from the excessive and unrealistic expectations of scientists, entrepreneurs, and businesspersons. Artificial Intelligence For Dummies is the book you need if you feel as if you really dont know anything about a technology that purports to be an essential element of your life.

Using various media as a starting point, you might notice that most of the useful technologies are almost boring. Certainly, no one gushes over them. AI is like that: so ubiquitous as to be humdrum. Youre even using AI in some way today; in fact, you probably rely on AI in many different ways you just dont notice it because its so mundane. Artificial Intelligence For Dummies makes you aware of these very real and essential uses of AI. A smart thermostat for your home may not sound very exciting, but its an incredibly practical use for a technology that has some people running for the hills in terror.

Of course, Artificial Intelligence For Dummies also covers the really cool uses for AI. For example, you may not know there is a medical monitoring device that can actually predict when you might have a heart problem, but such a device exists. AI powers drones, drives cars, and makes all sorts of robots possible. You see AI used today in all sorts of space applications, and AI figures prominently in all the space adventures humans will have tomorrow.

In contrast to many books on the topic, Artificial Intelligence For Dummies also tells you the truth about where and how AI cant work. In fact, AI will never be able to engage in certain essential activities and tasks, and wont be able to do other ones until far into the future. Some people try to tell you that these activities are possible for AI, but Artificial Intelligence For Dummies tells you why they cant work, clearing away all the hype that has kept you in the dark about AI. One takeaway from this book is that humans will always be important. In fact, if anything, AI makes humans even more important because AI helps humans excel in ways that you frankly might not be able to imagine.

Artificial Intelligence For Dummies starts by helping you understand AI, especially what AI needs to work and why it has failed in the past. You also discover the basis for some of the issues with AI today and how those issues might prove to be nearly impossible to solve in some cases. Of course, along with the issues, you also discover the fixes for some problems and consider where scientists are taking AI in search of answers.

For a technology to survive, it must have a group of solid applications that actually work. It also must provide a payback to investors with the foresight to invest in the technology. In the past, AI failed to achieve critical success because it lacked some of these features. AI also suffered from being ahead of its time: True AI needed to wait for the current hardware to actually succeed. Today, you can find AI used in various computer applications and to automate processes. Its also relied on heavily in the medical field and to help improve human interaction. AI is also related to data analysis, machine learning, and deep learning. Sometimes these terms can prove confusing, so one of the reasons to read