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Tim Harrington's Reviews > A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going
A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going
by
An interesting look at the history of AI and what the author terms as the various 'boom and bust' cycles it has gone through over the past few decades, brought about by what the author suggests are overly ambitious forecasts of what AI might be able to achieve in the near term, only to largely disappoint as actual progress fails to live up to the hype.
The first few chapters go over the early decades of progress (starting with Turing), the various methods used, the different types of systems and what they were able to achieve. In addition the author outlines the various limitations of these systems - and approaches - to AI and then leads on with the next innovations and how they tried to fix these issues in the following period.
There are various examples of the big breakthroughs that have been made over the past decade or two, as well as a clear outline as to why this is nothing like AGI and an explanation as to how far off that we really are. As someone who has kept half an eye on progress over the past decade, I was already aware of the progress made and had watched a few videos (as well as downloaded some of the source code) of the DeepMind Atari stuff 7 or 8 years ago (and found it utterly fascinating), but nonetheless reading about it here was still enjoyable and I liked the way Wooldridge tried to ground everything he was saying and not get too carried away - which is one of the main messages of the book.
Woolridge ends the book with a philosophical discussion on what consciousness is, and how we might and define what it would mean for a machine to have consciousness and what tests we might set for that to be proved. Woolridge states we are probably over a hundred years - if not considerably more, if I understood him correctly - to getting even close to AGI and given what he lays out in the book, it is difficult to argue otherwise. I guess perhaps the more interesting counter point (particularly re the dangers of AI) might be whether it matters, the systems in development at the moment could have (and will have) such a profound impact on the planet I wonder whether the conscious argument is somewhat moot and perhaps academic - even though we might be hundreds of years away from AGI, very real change (and the danger that comes with it) will likely be here soon.
Overall I really enjoyed the book as a soft introduction into the various reading I hope to do in AI over the next few months. Recommended.
by
An interesting look at the history of AI and what the author terms as the various 'boom and bust' cycles it has gone through over the past few decades, brought about by what the author suggests are overly ambitious forecasts of what AI might be able to achieve in the near term, only to largely disappoint as actual progress fails to live up to the hype.
The first few chapters go over the early decades of progress (starting with Turing), the various methods used, the different types of systems and what they were able to achieve. In addition the author outlines the various limitations of these systems - and approaches - to AI and then leads on with the next innovations and how they tried to fix these issues in the following period.
There are various examples of the big breakthroughs that have been made over the past decade or two, as well as a clear outline as to why this is nothing like AGI and an explanation as to how far off that we really are. As someone who has kept half an eye on progress over the past decade, I was already aware of the progress made and had watched a few videos (as well as downloaded some of the source code) of the DeepMind Atari stuff 7 or 8 years ago (and found it utterly fascinating), but nonetheless reading about it here was still enjoyable and I liked the way Wooldridge tried to ground everything he was saying and not get too carried away - which is one of the main messages of the book.
Woolridge ends the book with a philosophical discussion on what consciousness is, and how we might and define what it would mean for a machine to have consciousness and what tests we might set for that to be proved. Woolridge states we are probably over a hundred years - if not considerably more, if I understood him correctly - to getting even close to AGI and given what he lays out in the book, it is difficult to argue otherwise. I guess perhaps the more interesting counter point (particularly re the dangers of AI) might be whether it matters, the systems in development at the moment could have (and will have) such a profound impact on the planet I wonder whether the conscious argument is somewhat moot and perhaps academic - even though we might be hundreds of years away from AGI, very real change (and the danger that comes with it) will likely be here soon.
Overall I really enjoyed the book as a soft introduction into the various reading I hope to do in AI over the next few months. Recommended.
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Reading Progress
November 30, 2023
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Started Reading
November 30, 2023
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December 4, 2023
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December 4, 2023
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