AI book help

Hi i posted this in a thread about robots and humans, but the thread is from march 2004, so im starting this new thread, i have searched alot but need help. I will paste what i have posted:

Hi all, i love robot movies too, like terminator, robots, offcourse the matrix trilogy, im very interested in AI, i want to read books about it, to learn to understand it more, but i dont know were to start. Its really interesting, i, myself study in ict and well i want to know more about AI, what we can do now, what will be in the future. I read somewere on the internet, that the us military is working on robot sience since the 60ties!! Hope someone can give me a reall good book beginner or advance, please give me a few titles that i can order through amazon. I hope someone will reply cause i dont know were to start. Thanks very much,

Pazzie

Don't know of any book names per se but I do know of an author who recently published a book on this subject. This seems to be his website(or a fansite)

www.kurzweilai.net...

I can't really find a reason why AI is even desired, but if you want a book on robots with brains try 'How to Survive a Robot Invasion' or something to that nature. IT was recently released by aCarnegie Melon student, aand it haas an odd cover to it.

You don't buy into Kurzweils Law of Accelorating Returns?

www.kurzweilai.net...?m=1%23610

We could accelorate the positive feedback loop our progress has become. We build tools and with those tools we build better tools and so on and so on etc. Moores Law is another example of a positive feedback loop, the question is are we smart enough to apply that to say Physics or Biology? Maybe we need a 'lil help in that area or then again maybe not. The possibilities of AI helping us in this area are tantilizing nontheless.

[edit on 10-11-2005 by sardion2000]

Thanks very much people!! I will take a look around, i have found the book: 'How to Survive a Robot Invasion' or uprising, and i found some books about the melting of human brains and computers, but i did not find a good beginners book to artificial intelligence, and what i found was from the nineties hahaha!! But its an very interesting object, cool but also frightening, that humans may stop to be the most advanced creatures on the planet. Why should there be AI, i dont know, it makes building and research stuff goes quicker, when their mind goes faster then ours i guess. But it has a strange ethical feeling about this, we cant play god you know, by creating concious beings. Well let me know if you guys and girls men and women find more titles, i will buy the best one i find and well talk to you later!

Thanks for the help!!

Hey Pazzzzz

I can go one beter for you because I actually have a degree in Artificial Intelligence from UMIST, Manchester UK and would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

So my friend, fire away!

PS, that goes for anyone here who wants questions on AI answered. Also I just graduated so the knowledge is still fresh in my head!

Hi!! Thanks very much, and very good that you have succeeded in this study! I myself have 6 months to go for my mcse 2003 study, but what a different field, or not. Whats the difference between the computers from now and the computers that will be here in ten years? And when will AI be consious? And will there be robots that can think for themselves? And how far are we now with the development of AI? And is it true that in 20 years we can upload our brains on a hard drive?? Sorry for all these questions. If it takes too long can you PM me please, or U2U??

[edit on 10-11-2005 by Pazzzzz]

I don't know of any myself, but I'll talk to my brother about it. He's studying computer science, and has taken a class or two in AI. He also spent last summer working for a professor as a research assistant in artificial intelligence, so he should know a few good ones.

Having spent some time "in the business", I have run across many who have claimed that "AI is here"...to only find out that they have simply built a fancy expert engine...or have one helluva decision tree. Plz understand, however, that my personal bar for what is deemed AI is quite high.

Nonetheless, a good/quick read is "Beyond Humanity", by Earl Cox. I have worked with Earl in the past, and have found him to be quite entertaining.

You can also visit his website at "www.earlcoxreports.com"...Hope this helps.

Hi, thanks ill take a look, i found this one through the help of one of the above posts, the title: The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil, is this a good book too, to begin?? I will look at the book this night when im done playing battlefield 2 hahaha!! So i have two titles now!! Thanks very much for all the help, and well il check back later on if there are new posts. Thankssss

As far as i know its still in the early stages my degree covered it and was to say the least math intensive course of study. Neural networks and simulations, best i can say about it is intelligent search engines which aid you in searching by asking sensible questions was as far as I got. As for robotics and uploading your brainwaves - don't wait up. In saying that they have managed to program robots to be interactive and mobile so who knows.

Wow. The original two books on artificial intelligence are really dry, and all LISP programming. I've got them, but I'm not sure why anymore.

Try this: the MIT Dept of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence;
www.csail.mit.edu...

Read it all, you will be amazed.

Check out the work on bio-engineered computers. (organic computers). Did you know that it's believed that the human brain works in trinary? Not binary?

Also try doing a search for "expert systems" type of software programs. These are intended to take the place of a knowledgeable expert in the field. Example: software programs on oil drilling rigs that get things working again without human experts around to help.

As unintuitive as it may seem, I'd suggest getting a couple of video game programming books to start in on AI. Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus does a pretty good job of explaining most everything in a video game--including basic AI--in basic enough terms for a layman. The book is an overkill if you're just wanting only AI stuff: 1200 pages, and only about 80 pages for AI (but it's pretty good introductory stuff.)

Also, look for video games with source code available. sourceforge.net is a great resource for open source software of all varieties, including games and other AI stuff. But find something there that catches your interest, then look through the code to find out what they did. You won't necessarily be able to look at it and point out all the concepts thrown at you by an AI text, but when you read through the AI stuff it'll make a bit more sense.

I'm not much on AI but I am a developer--I'll throw in whatever I can as needed

As unintuitive as it may seem, I'd suggest getting a couple of video game programming books to start in on AI.

Well to anyone not playing games that is Anyone played Quake IV? F.E.A.R.? The AI in those games is as true to life as I've ever seen in any game to date. They adapt and learn which can be annoying at times :p

Thanks guys!! Well ive got a lot of reading to do, so ill post back tonight. But shall i order these two books then?? Singularity is near and beyond humanity?? Only beyond humanity is from 1996, so kind of old, beyond singularity is 2005, well hope someone can tell me this evening, so i can order them. I like the way AI thinks in some games, but i did not play quake or fear, last fps was battlefield 2, and well the singleplayer is good haha, and farcry has a good ai, they surround you when they got the change, but there not smart haha! Thanks for all the help!! So please tell me about my two titles??

An intro to the world of AI

The minute you mention Artificial Intelligence people automatically think terminator! Well I’m here to tell you that given the current state of affairs this is unlikely in the near future which may come as a relief to some and a disappointment to others. In order to fill you in on the current state of affairs it is important to start at the beginning.

Our story begins in the 1970’s (roughly). This is when the idea of AI first came about and started to be worked on in academic fields. Much work was carried out in the UK at places like Edinburgh, and one of the lectures there is considered to be the father of modern AI.

People can follow this link to view more information on the subject www.inf.ed.ac.uk...

Back in the day all sorts of grandiose predictions were made as to how much progress would be made in the field. Indeed many people predicted that the problem of intelligent computers would be solved in no time at all (look at Hal in 2001, even Mr C Clarke got it wrong! As an interesting side note, my grandfather was once bitten by his dog, but I digress….). Oh how wrong they were. Having spent the last three years looking at their work, I can say without a doubt that this is the most difficult thing we as a race will ever undertake.

Before the problem even begins to be looked at we need to define what intelligence is and that in itself takes us into a huge philosophical debate. Rather than regurgitate what other people have said I suggest people look at the following links to get an idea of what computer scientists are up against and what people have judged as goals for AI to achieve before scientists can pat themselves on the back and move onto other things.

www.akri.org...
www.cs.virginia.edu...
www.csee.usf.edu...
www.cse.buffalo.edu...

These days people have taken a divide and conquer approach to the world of AI. Rather than setting about making intelligent computers, the problem has been subdivided into numerous categories and the result has been several spin off technologies which are now in use in different systems all over the world.

The most interesting widespread in my opinion relate to the areas of:

• Neural Nets
• Genetic Algorithms
• Natural Language Processing (Syntax of language, how it all works)
• Computational Representations of Meaning (How we represent the semantics of language)
• Expert Systems (knowledge bases)
• Computer Vision (Image processing techniques and algorithms)
• Machine Learning (Techniques used to refine knowledge bases)

Neural Nets

Neural Nets are very useful little tools and while they start off simple they soon get a lot more complicated. In a nutshell the idea is to create a system based fundamentally on a greatly simplified model of the human neurone. When linked together in nets these neurones allow us to perform numerous tasks. The recommended reading for this module was a book by a man named Kevin Gurney. Several of my mates swore by this book and although at times it is a little intense you will come away an expert by the time you finish it. Check out the following link and note that yes you can print out his book for free, or alternatively read the slides online!

www.shef.ac.uk...

There are other people who talk about neural nets on the web but I have to say that this guy is the daddy. You need only bother reading this book if you want to find out about neural nets.

Genetic Algorithms

These little blighters are algorithms based on the process of evolution and survival of the fittest. There are very, very simple to learn about and rather interesting as a concept. A friend of mine once wrote a JAVA program to view them in action and found it to be a very interesting experience.

cs.felk.cvut.cz...
www.rennard.org...

These links more or less tell you everything you need to know about when it comes to GA’s.

Natural Language Processing

I tell you people, if you write a program to crack this problem then you will become the richest person in the world overnight. This has so many applications it is untrue. Sadly it is also very difficult and in my opinion modern techniques just aren’t up to it.
As far as topics go it is very vast. To get you started the best book to read is probably found on the following link:

www.cs.colorado.edu...

It written in a way that is easy to read for an academic book. It will also set you right on all of the current techniques for natural language processing.

Computational Representations of Meaning

Its all very well been able to parse natural language and tag it with useful information which is what natural language processing deals with. I.e. it deals with the syntax of language whereas this deals with the structure of language. This subject is so fringe and so little is understood about it that it is difficult to find many useful sources on it. It is a very demanding subject area but very interesting from a philosophical point of view. At UMIST this was taught by one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. He was a real genius and a leader in the field. (This man has more degrees, doctorates, PhD’s than I have had hot meals!) A guy called Dr Alan Ramsey. At this time I’ve been unable to locate my notes for him so I’ll follow with some sources later if I can find them. Besides as this is probably the hardest AI topic it makes sense that if you want to get grounding in AI you read about the other topics first! Even so for those of you who are interested try looking at:

www.co.umist.ac.uk...

Expert Systems

These are used quite a lot in the medical profession and involve vast amounts of rules in the form of

The Left Hand Side -> Defined by the Right Hand Side

Or

A Cold -> Defined by a runny nose, headache, sneezes

These rules are then parsed and people can then query the rule base. As the above examples show these can be very useful and are created by a process where an expert is sat down and rules are created via his knowledge. Much of my experience with these types of structures was done through the use of a funny little language called PROLOG which stands for programmable logic.

www.amazon.co.uk...=1131723098/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/202-0317851-4808660

This book will tell you everything you need to know. For those of you out there who are programmers, it is well worth giving Prolog a try. Its completely different to C, JAVA or any other language out there.

Computer Vision

Another interesting topic, but if I were you guys I would concentrate on the others first as they are the most interesting. If your interested however I would look at the following book as it is very good. (It got me through my exams!)

www.palgrave.com...

Machine Learning

If you value your sanity I wouldn’t bother with this subject. Its hella boring and I mean boring! You have been warned!

That’s all I can be bothered to write at the moment. Stay tuned folks!

Thanks for that very interesting read, im going into it now!! Hey ive ordered singularity is near, and maybe the other one tonight, but if anyone has a better title, i dont know if its good, beyond humanity, cause its an older book?? But thanks for all the kind help!! I have a lot of reading to do and thanks very much!!!! Greets

Oww and how about the world of AI, computers, robotics and the military, does anyone think that there is more to it then we know?? I mean the military is more into these things then we know, look at the development of stealth aircraft etc.