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First Draft of First Chapter of My Book “Understanding AI”

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So I have decided to write a book. Crazy, perhaps. It is something I have wanted to do for years and faced many false starts. I think a lot of people have been through that. It’s not easy, but I knew that. It’s actually harder than you’d ever imagine, at least for me, but then again, this is the first time I have truly committed to the pursuit.

The reason I choose to write this is that AI is the most poorly understood topic I have ever seen, and has been wrapped in mythology. This is especially true with “AI Doom.” The problem with these beliefs is that they are difficult to refute without teaching a full lesson on AI. So, I guess that’s what I’m going to have to do! I’m not complaining, however. The fact is, there is really no in-depth guide for smart people who want to truly understand the concept of artificial intelligence.

I want to be clear that this is a first draft of the first chapter. It will be revised, probably several times. It currently lacks citations, but those will be added. Citations will be minimal because this is not a scholarly work, but should still have basic source credibility. Additionally, this chapter contains assertions which some might call bold or unsupported. There’s a reason for that and the reason is that this is just the first chapter.

Subsequent chapters will explore the history of AI as a concept and technology, including the pre-history and how formal logic rules, early computers and language itself set the stage for a new form of data processing, which we call artificial intelligence. It goes on to explain the theory of deep learning and neural networks, why this approach won out, and will take readers all the way to understanding natural language processing.

It’s not designed to be easy or dumbed down. However, it is intended to be fully complete for any lay person to fully understand why AI is the way it is, how we got her and where it is likely to go next. It is also not entirely technical. It features historic concept, public perception, regulatory issues and economic realities.

I also want to add that there are a number of people out there who are writing hot takes on AI that are completely uninformed, and this is intended to be the opposite of that. It’s down to earth, skeptical and presents the truth about artificial intelligence.

The working title is “Understanding AI.”


AND HERE IT IS!

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New Youtube Channel and Focus on AI

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Artificial Intelligence has more mysticism than just about any other subject out there. I’ve never seen any subject so poorly understood and so sensationalized. It’s a technology that everyone seems to realize is big, revolutionary and important. But that’s only resulted in a huge amount of mythology.

Few people understand AI from a technical perspective, but just about everyone *thinks* they understand it, because it seems so intuitive. It seems like you can just talk to it and it understands, so the implications are obvious, right?

Right now the world has a deficiency in AI experts who understand the tech, and even fewer are mature risk managers. That’s resulted in a lot of skewing toward sensationalism. Most AI leaders are not even knowledge about the tech and the media rewards a high drama narrative. There are a few ways it skews: one of the most ridiculous messages is AI doomerism, the idea that AI might wipe out humanity. It’s cartoonish but it receives more attention than it should. There are also claims of permanent unemployment. On the other end is AI utopianism. There are also those insisting AI might become conscious or a moral patient. Yes, this is also being taken seriously.

It’s really a subject that attracts all kinds. But few people realize that like any technology, AI and ML have fundamental limits and capabilities. They’re not magic. But the recent AI summit in India would have you think otherwise, with ubiquitous claims of being close to superintelligence.

And so, as one of the few AI technical experts willing to address this problem I have launched a new YouTube Channel and will be focusing primarily on this topic. AI risks, mitigations, technology and truth: AI Sanity, on Youtube.