Overview

An influential scientist in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) explains its fundamental concepts and how it is changing culture and society. A particular form of AI is now embedded in our tech, our infrastructure, and our lives. How did it get there? Where and why should we be concerned? And what should we do now? The Shortcut: Why Intelligent Machines Do Not Think Like Us provides an accessible yet probing exposure of AI in its prevalent form today, proposing a new narrative to connect and make sense of events that have happened in the recent tumultuous past, and enabling us to think soberly about the road ahead. This book is divided into ten carefully crafted and easily digestible chapters. Each chapter grapples with an important question for AI. Ranging from the scientific concepts that underpin the technology to wider implications for society, it develops a unified description using tools from different disciplines and avoiding unnecessary abstractions or words that end with -ism. The book uses real examples wherever possible, introducing the listener to the people who have created some of these technologies and to ideas shaping modern society that originate from the technical side of AI. It contains important practical advice about how we should approach AI in the future without promoting exaggerated hypes or fears.

Full Product Details

9798874896430

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Nello Cristianini has been an influential researcher in the field of machine learning and AI for over twenty years. He is professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Bath; before that, he worked at the University of Bristol, the University of California (Davis), the University of London (Royal Holloway). For his work in machine learning, he has been a past recipient of the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award and of the ERC Advanced Grant. Cristianini has been a coauthor of influential books in machine learning, as well as dozens of academic articles, published in journals that range from AI to the philosophy of science, from the digital humanities to natural language processing, and from sociology to biology. In 2017, he delivered the annual STOA lecture at the European Parliament on the topic of the social impact of AI, a theme that he is still actively investigating. Cristianini has a degree in physics from the University of Trieste, an MSc in computational intelligence from the University of London, and a PhD from the University of Bristol. Graham Mack is a multi-award-winning voice actor, producer, broadcaster, and programmer. It all started one day in 1991 when he was working as an an air-conditioning engineer in Sydney Australia. He came home from work and said to his wife, ""I've had the radio on in the van today; I reckon I could do that!"" Graham was born in Liverpool and grew up in Great Sankey near Warrington. His family emigrated to New Zealand when he was eighteen. His parents returned to Britain and left him in New Zealand when he was twenty-one. He worked as a pipe fitter on an oil refinery construction site, married a Kiwi (Julie), and studied heating ventilating and air-conditioning. After seven years in New Zealand, three married to Julie, Graham and Julie moved to Sydney, Australia, where he looked after air-conditioning plants in high-rise buildings. He studied commercial radio full-time at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney and graduated top of the class of '93. After graduation in August that year, he started his first paid on-air radio job at 2PK, Parkes (in the Central West of New South Wales), doing afternoon drive. Then he did breakfast at 5SE in Mount Gambier, South Australia, then nights on 2GO on the NSW Central Coast. He moved back to the UK in 1997 to present the breakfast show on 2CR FM in Bournemouth, then Century North East, BRMB, Century East Midlands, and returned to 2CR FM as program director for three years (2004-2006). Then he spent four years on breakfast at TFM, three years doing an all-speech breakfast show on BBC Wiltshire, five years as the program director and breakfast show host at BOBfm in the home counties, and two years as the PD at Fix Radio in London. He has also presented radio shows on BBC London 94.9, BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, BBC Hereford and Worcester, BBC Radio Oxford, BBC Radio Shropshire, BBC Radio York, BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Kent, and 106 Jack FM. Graham has also done a lot of TV work, presenting commercials and corporate videos in Australia and in the UK. He was the subject of a five-part documentary called Changing Places for Carlton Television, appeared on Ready Steady Cook, Monkey Business on Animal Planet, and Big Brother and Big Brother's Little Brother with Russell Brand. He has also worked as a voice-over artist for many commercial clients, including radio and television companies in the UK, USA, and Australia, and has narrated many audiobooks.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available