New technologies have become a part and parcel of everyday life. Some of these new technologies include machine learning, augmented reality, virtual reality, internet of things, robotic process automation, blockchain, quantum computing, edge computing, others. Who can forget artificial intelligence (AI) from this list? AI systems have become an integral part of various industries and businesses.
- Are we moving into a world where AI systems will replace humans for various activities and automate everything?
- What will the AI revolution mean for society?
- Are human beings going to be jobless and unemployed because new technologies which are capable of replicating human intelligence dominate the world?
Here are the top 5 books that you must read to understand the field of artificial intelligence and AI systems.
Book name: Rebooting AI
Authors: Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis
- Rebooting AI is a book written by two professors Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis, who are pioneers in their field.
- They have spent a major part of their careers in the field of artificial intelligence and witnessed the AI revolution closely.
- The book goes back to the history of artificial intelligence and describes what has and has not been achieved till date.
- Both authors believe that the AI systems that we see today are not as powerful as they appear to be.
- It is cited that most achievements in the field of artificial intelligence have been witnessed in a closed space with a defined set of rules.
- The approach followed in artificial intelligence is narrow to achieve the real sense of intelligence.
- In the real-world, intelligence is quite complex and not as easy as it appears to be.
- The book also mentions that for people to adopt AI systems, they need to be secure, safe, and trustworthy.
Book name: Klara and the Sun
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
- Klara and the Sun is a novel written by the Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro.
- This novel is a New York Times Best Seller.
- It is a story about Klara, a humanoid machine having the powers of observation and artificial intelligence.
- Klara is the friend and companion of Josie, a 14-year-old sick girl.
- The relationship between the two reminds readers to think about the relationships in their life, their families, their loved ones, and the true meaning of life.
- With the rise in loneliness in today’s world, an artificial intelligence companion would do a far greater job than a human would.
- Although the story mentioned in the book ‘Klara and the Sun’ is a fictional one, the time is not far when it will become a reality in the world that we live in.
Book name: A World Without Work
Author: Daniel Susskind
- Every time new technologies are introduced, there is a fear that they will replace human beings in the various jobs and tasks they perform.
- However, this myth is busted every time the new technologies assist humans in increasing their productivity and efficiency.
- In this book, Daniel Susskind argues that the threat of human workers being replaced by machines can be true in the future.
- The book talks about AI systems as a dual force, a substitution force and a complementary force.
- Technological unemployment forms the core of this book, and the case of many humans being out of work is mentioned in this book
Book name: The Alignment Problem
Author: Brian Christian
- AI systems are being used everywhere, in hospitals, banking, finance, schools, and homes too.
- These complex AI systems take decisions on their own without human intervention.
- Most decisions taken by AI systems cannot be directly controlled by humans, or there is very little understanding about how these decisions are actually taken.
- The book focuses on the alignment problem of artificial intelligence with the values and judgement of humans.
- This book meticulously examines the alignment issues of AI systems from various perspectives.
Book name: What computers still can’t do?
Author: Hubert L. Dreyfus
- This book which was first published in 1972 and revised in 1992 mentions that AI systems are incapable of mimicking higher mental functions of humans.
- For example, in the case of supervised learning, the input, output, and feedback to create an AI model are provided by data scientists who are humans.
- The AI powered learning agent is guided by the supervisor, who is a human being.
- Dreyfus argues that human beings are unique and much more powerful than AI systems that have a naïve mental functioning.
By reading these books, human beings can get valuable insights about the real potential of AI systems, and how the AI revolution is going to impact the society in which we live.