Description
of the book:
Artificial
intelligence (AI) is a field within computer science that is attempting
to build enhanced intelligence into computer systems. This book traces
the history of the subject, from the early dreams of eighteenth-century
(and earlier) pioneers to the more successful work of today’s AI
engineers. AI is becoming more and more a part of everyone’s life. The
technology is already embedded in face-recognizing cameras,
speech-recognition software, Internet search engines, and health-care
robots, among other applications. The book’s many diagrams and
easy-to-understand descriptions of AI programs will help the casual
reader gain an understanding of how these and other AI systems actually
work. Its thorough (but unobtrusive) end-of-chapter notes containing
citations to important source materials will be of great use to AI
scholars and researchers. This book promises to be the definitive
history of a field that has captivated the imaginations of scientists,
philosophers, and writers for centuries.
Here
is what some reviewers
have said about the book:
"With
the investigatory skill of a historian for the earliest work, personal
recollections and reflections of early work, and unprecedented access
to current researchers; and with the wit of a skilled author and
teacher and the insight of a founding father, Nils Nilsson is uniquely
qualified to present this lucid, comprehensive, entertaining and
balanced history of AI."
Peter
Norvig, Director of Research, Google Inc.
"Nils
reminds us of the grand scope of the AI enterprise and provides an
excellent vantage point from which to assess the remarkable progress
that has occurred. At the same time, the book provides unique and
detailed historical insight into how things really happened. My only
complaint is that Nils has, as always, understated his own important
role in the story."
Stuart
Russell, University of California, Berkeley
"Nilsson
is one of the world's earliest AI researchers and practitioners, and
here he presents a vivid history of Artificial Intelligence - its early
breakthroughs, intermediate setbacks, current successes, and
forthcoming triumphs."
Takeo
Kanade, U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor, Carnegie Mellon
University
"Nils
Nilsson has written the definitive intellectual history of Artificial
Intelligence research; something that he himself has been a key player
in for over forty of its 53 years. In this book he not only explains
all of the major ideas and fashions in AI, but he traces how the ideas
arose, where they arose and why. This well mannered book explains AI.
All of it."
Rodney
Brooks, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
"A
wonderfully comprehensive and entertaining look at how artificial
intelligence was invented and developed."
Alan
Kay, President of Viewpoints Research Institute
"Nils's
book is a tour de force that serves as a valuable hiker's guide through
the twists and turns of the historical trails of the first several
decades of the quest for artificial intelligence."
Eric
Horvitz, Microsoft Research and President of the AAAI
"Nilsson's
new book is a fascinating chronology of artificial intelligence,
written by one of the doyens of the field. It should appeal to a broad
audience with its sweeping coverage of topics ranging from game playing
to computer vision and natural language processing."
Prabhakar
Raghavan, Head of Yahoo! Labs
"A
balanced look at what AI has been able to do during its first 50 years
of existence. His personal recollections and the rationale behind many
decisions, as retold by an insider, make this book a unique
contribution, interesting both for the informed and for the general
reader. Both kinds of readers can learn a lot from Nilsson’s book about
the evolution of this now-mature research field. The book is written in
a friendly conversational style, without any unnecessary mathematical
formalisms, and is richly illustrated with many diagrams that depict
representative AI systems and photographs of the many innovators that
led to their development."
Fernando
Berzal, reviews.com
"Nilsson
crafts a highly readable and personal account of the theory and
practitioners that brought the world to present-day AI... the text [is]
accessible and the descriptions personal."
T.
Armstrong, Wheaton College for Choice Magazine