Artificial Intelligence: Modern Magic or Dangerous Future?, the Illustrated Edition

A fascinating, richly illustrated journey through the history of artificial intelligence--and an honest assessment of our future alongside it.

Artificial intelligence has long been a mainstay of science fiction, and increasingly it feels as if AI is entering our everyday lives, with virtual personal assistants such as Apple's Siri now ubiquitous and self-driving cars almost upon us. But what do we actually mean when we talk about artificial intelligence? In this comprehensive, beautifully illustrated account, AI expert Yorick Wilks traces the history of artificial intelligence back to its origins, examining not only how it works and why it was designed but also its controversies and achievements.

Along the way, Wilks also considers our future with AI, assessing whether these technologies will benefit humanity or merely menace our way of life. Are the sentient machines of 2001: A Space Odyssey or The Matrix plausible, or will real-world AI look and feel very different? What has AI done for us so far? What do we want it to do? And what technologies could it yield in the future? Entertaining, enlightening, and keenly argued, Artificial Intelligence: Modern Magic or Dangerous Future? is the essential guide to the AI debate.

一本引人入勝、豐富插圖的旅程，帶領讀者穿越人工智慧的歷史，並對我們與之共處的未來進行誠實評估。

人工智慧長期以來一直是科幻作品的主題，而如今它似乎正進入我們的日常生活，蘋果的Siri等虛擬個人助理已經無所不在，自駕車也即將問世。但是，當我們談論人工智慧時，我們到底指的是什麼？在這本全面且精美插圖的著作中，人工智慧專家Yorick Wilks追溯了人工智慧的起源，不僅探討它的運作方式和設計原理，還研究了它的爭議和成就。

在這一過程中，Wilks還考慮了我們與人工智慧的未來，評估這些技術是否將造福人類，還是只會威脅我們的生活方式。《2001太空漫遊》或《黑客帝國》中的有感知能力的機器是可行的嗎？還是現實世界中的人工智慧看起來和感覺起來會截然不同？人工智慧到目前為止為我們做了什麼？我們希望它能做什麼？未來它可能產生哪些技術？這本娛樂性、啟發性且具有深度論證的著作《人工智慧：現代魔法還是危險未來？》是AI辯論的必讀指南。

Yorick Wilks is Emeritus Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sheffield, a research associate of the Oxford Internet Institute, and a Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute of Human and Machine Cognition. His books include Artificial Companions and Artificial Believers: The Ascription of Belief (with Afzal Ballim).

Yorick Wilks是謝菲爾德大學的人工智慧名譽教授，牛津互聯網研究所的研究聯合會員，以及佛羅里達人類與機器認知研究所的高級研究科學家。他的著作包括《人工伴侶》和《人工信徒：信仰的歸屬》（與Afzal Ballim合著）。