"From her place in the store that sells artificial friends, Klara -- an artificial friend with outstanding observational qualities -- watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara she is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. In this luminous...

Every day, we use our computers to perform remarkable feats. A simple web search picks out a handful of relevant needles from the world's biggest haystack: the billions of pages on the World Wide Web. Uploading a photo to Facebook transmits millions of pieces of information over numerous error-prone network links, yet somehow a perfect copy of the photo arrives intact. Without even knowing it, we use public-key cryptography to transmit secret information...

AI is much more than a sexy marketing gimmick. At its core, it's a powerful business tool that can make operations and decision-making more efficient, employees more productive, and customers delighted. Unfortunately, leaders who want to take advantage of artificial intelligence often don't know where to start. The process can feel overwhelming, from analyzing existing processes and software systems and choosing where to apply AI automation, to preparing...

"From Oxford's leading AI researcher comes a fun and accessible tour through the history and future of one of the most cutting edge and misunderstood field in science: Artificial Intelligence The somewhat ill-defined long-term aim of AI is to build machines that are conscious, self-aware, and sentient; machines capable of the kind of intelligent autonomous action that currently only people are capable of. As an AI researcher with 25 years of experience,...

Researchers are finally cracking the code on artificial intelligence. It has the potential to usher in a new age of affluence and leisure-- but as Kaplan warns, the transition may be protracted and brutal unless we address the two great scourges of the modern developed world: volatile labor markets and income inequality. He proposes innovative, free-market adjustments to our economic system and social policies to avoid an extended period of social...

On a desperately overcrowded future Earth, crippled by climate change, the most unlikely hope is better than none. Governments turn to Big Science to provide them with the dreams that will keep the masses compliant. The Needle is one such dream, an installation where the most abstruse theoretical science is being tested: science that might make human travel to a habitable exoplanet distantly feasible. When the Needle's director offers her underground...

No recent scientific enterprise has proved as alluring, terrifying, and filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks as artificial intelligence. An award-winning author and leading computer scientist reveals its turbulent history and the recent surge of successes, grand hopes, and emerging fears that surround AI. No recent scientific enterprise has proved as alluring, terrifying, and filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks...

"AI and the Future of Education by Priten Shah is a timely response to the challenges and opportunities that artificial intelligence presents to educators. After offering an overview of AI, the author shows teachers how to evaluate and use AI in lesson design and to automate their administrative tasks. Readers will come to see that AI is not a threat to teaching and learning but a tool to make teaching and learning more engaging. Shah also discusses...

"When will artificial intelligence become a reality? It already is. Although the idea of artificial intelligence has captured the human imagination since antiquity, the term wasn't coined until the mid-1950s. Since then, A.I. has steadily entered many humans' lives, and its continued integration appears inevitable. This book collects recent New York Times articles that present the most current discussions about artificial intelligence. How is A.I....

The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. Other animals have stronger muscles or sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains. If machine brains one day come to surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on...