The Quest for Artificial Intelligence: A History of Ideas and Achievements by Nils J. Nilsson


The Quest for Artificial Intelligence: A History of Ideas and Achievements
Title : The Quest for Artificial Intelligence: A History of Ideas and Achievements
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0521122937
ISBN-10 : 9780521122931
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 580
Publication : First published October 30, 2009

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.

The Quest for Artificial Intelligence: A History of Ideas and Achievements Reviews

  • Gavin

    A sweet informal history of AI research from a Stanford doyen. In places it is actually oral history -

    ...Jack was the Director of DARPA from 1987 to 1989 and presided over some cutbacks in AI research (including the cancellation of one of my own research projects)


    Like any history, the history of computing is full of little myths - e.g. that Lovelace was the first programmer, that von Neumann originated stored-program memory, that ENIAC was the first true computer, that hardware and software is a clean and natural division in kind... Nilsson calmly lets out the air of these and more.

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    Free here]

  • Jon Gauthier

    Excellent introduction to the history of artificial intelligence.

    I figure as an AI practitioner I ought to know the history of my field, so I picked up this book last month.

    I found this useful in understanding the long-term historical trends of AI, and also in collecting general paper references for AI.
    (I have a nice reading list with books and papers for understanding more deeply now!)

  • MKG MKG

    and the quest continues ..

  • Henry Cooksley

    The best book I have come across on the history of artificial intelligence. Tells a reasonably coherent story of AI without getting lost in biographical detail, i.e. it sticks to the ideas where possible. I'm looking forward to being able to re-read this once I've learned more about the subject, e.g. the Russell and Norvig textbook (which is referenced constantly throughout).

    Not much I can fault it for except with the pace of the field being so fast it urgently needs a 10-year anniversary update to take account of the years 2009-2019. Also it's weak on the implications of AI and AI safety, but to be fair that's not the focus of the book. No Bostrom, but you do get Hanson (as the final citation, no less).

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    (Guide to my rating system)
    5☆ - A classic. Influential on a 50-year scale and/or something which I have very strong personal feelings for.
    4☆ - A great book. Influential on a 10-year scale and/or something which I really enjoyed reading.
    3☆ - A good book. Influential on a 1-year scale and/or something which I liked reading.
    2☆ - A not-so-good book. Possibly not worth the time to read and/or something which I disliked reading.
    1☆ - A near-useless book. Probably not worth the time to read and/or something which I really disliked reading.
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  • Bima Sahbani

    Interesting introduction into AI history, worth to read

  • Sakkonos

    Μια ιντερναλιστική ιστορία της ΤΝ.


    https://300lexeis.weebly.com/episthmh...

  • Muhammad al-Khwarizmi

    Breezy read and, at that, very much full of pointers to the past, present and future of artificial intelligence. I was very pleased to learn about MIT's Common Sense Computing Initiative, especially given that they have released freely reusable software libraries that drive their work. Hope to find out more about "hierarchical" approaches to artificial intelligence, as the author calls them, such as the work being done at Numenta. Information on these projects has been hard to come by but now I might have more of an idea of where to look.