The Road to Conscious Machines: The Story of AI

(Paperback)

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In this myth-busting guide to AI past and present, one of the world's leading researchers shows why our fears for the future are misplaced The ultimate dream of AI is to build machines that are conscious and self-aware. While this remains a remote possibility, rapid progress in AI is transforming our world. Yet the public debate is still largely centred on unlikely prospects, from sentient machines to dystopian robot takeovers. Michael Wooldridge challenges the prevailing narrative, revealing how the hype distracts us from both the more immediate risks that this technology poses - from algorithmic bias to fake news - and the true life-changing potential of the field. The Road to Conscious Machines elucidates the discoveries of AI's greatest pioneers from Alan Turing to Demis Hassabis, and shows us what today's researchers actually think and do.

Reviews

A terrific book - essential reading for everyone seeking to make sense of Artificial Intelligence. Wooldridge provides a clear-sighted and entertaining account of both the technical development of AI and the social and ethical issues arising from its increasing deployment. -- Professor Sir Adrian Smith, Director and Chief Executive of The Alan Turing Institute
Takes us expertly by the hand through the labyrinth of Artificial Intelligence. A penetrating and lucid contribution to our digital understanding, which dispels many of the myths surrounding AI. Authoritative but accessible and highly readable. * Lord Clement-Jones CBE, Chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence 20172018 *
Calm, informative and refreshingly free of hype, Wooldridge's effortlessly readable book is the perfect guide to the history and future of AI. -- Tom Chivers, science writer and author of 'The AI Does Not Hate You'
In the long and often frustrating quest for artificial intelligence, something spectacular has happened in the past decade. Nobody understands the past, the present, the promise and the peril of this new technology better than Michael Wooldridge. He has written the definitive account of the new AI. -- Lord Matt Ridley, author of 'The Rational Optimist' and 'The Evolution of Everything'
The buzz around AI has unearthed many questions and in The Road to Conscious Machines you get answers. -- Tabitha Goldstaub, co-founder of CognitionX and Chair of the UK Government's AI Council
In an age when AI is promoted as either the greatest threat or best hope for humanity, Wooldridge gives us a text that is accessible and authoritative. A balanced and informed view of the decades-long history of AI, its methods and techniques, achievements and shortfalls. -- Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Professorial Research Fellow in Computer Science and Principal of Jesus College, Oxford
In this diligent and reassuring explanation of the immense difficulty of recreating intelligence in a machine, Michael Wooldridge succeeds not only in writing an engaging history of AI, but in telling us about the fabulously complicated structures on which our own consciousness rests -- Will Dunn * New Statesman *

Author Bio

Michael Wooldridge is a professor of Computer Science and Head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford, where he is a Fellow of Hertford College. He has been an AI researcher since 1989, and has published more than 400 scientific articles on the subject. From 2014 to 2016, he was President of the European Association for AI, and from 2015 to 2017 he was President of the International Joint Conference on AI (IJCAI). He lives in Oxford with his wife and two children.