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Steven Shwartz

Evil Robots, Killer Computers, and Other Myths: The Truth About AI and the Future of Humanity Paperback – February 2, 2021

by Steven Shwartz (Author)

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Amazon Bestseller in AI & Semantics
2022 Silver Medalist in the AXIOM Business Book Awards in Emerging Trends/ AI

Are AI robots and computers really going to take over the world?

Longtime artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and investor Steve Shwartz has grown frustrated with the fear-inducing hype around AI in popular culture and media. Yes, today’s AI systems are miracles of modern engineering, but no, humans do not have to fear robots seizing control or taking over all our jobs.

In this exploration of the fascinating and ever-changing landscape of artificial intelligence, Dr. Shwartz explains how AI works in simple terms. After reading this captivating book, you will understand

the inner workings of today’s amazing AI technologies, including facial recognition, self-driving cars, machine translation, chatbots, deepfakes, and many others;
why today’s artificial intelligence technology cannot evolve into the AI of science fiction lore;
the crucial areas where we will need to adopt new laws and policies in order to counter threats to our safety and personal freedoms resulting from the use of AI.

So although we don’t have to worry about evil robots rising to power and turning us into pets—and we probably never will—artificial intelligence is here to stay, and we must learn to separate fact from fiction and embrace how this amazing technology enhances our world.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publication date

February 2, 2021
Dimensions

6 x 0.72 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1735424536
ISBN-13

978-1735424538
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Despite his subject's forbidding technicality, Shwartz writes with unwavering clarity in a book that will be accessible to a wide audience."-Kirkus Reviews
"...should be required reading as a basic primer for any science and technology student interested in AI development and history."
-D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review "Shwartz points out that 'many people are concerned that intelligent robots will be able to read manuals, take courses, and eliminate all our jobs. Fortunately, this is science fiction.'"
-Joe McKendrick, Forbes.com

"Steve has a sane perspective on what computers can and cannot do. In this book, he carefully goes over all the hype in what passes for AI these days and explains how it works--and why it doesn't really work all that well."
-Roger Schank, AI pioneer and former professor at Stanford, Yale, and Northwestern

"Dr. Shwartz demonstrates how media hype around electronic brains waxes and wanes. His thesis is that that general AI is the computer science of the future, and always will be."
-Douglas Lyon, professor at Fairfield University

"By removing the fog, Dr. Shwartz uses plain language and clear examples to enable mere mortals to understand how AI can supplement rather than replace human intelligence for the foreseeable future."
-Les Trachtman, adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of the Amazon bestseller Don't F**K It Up: How Founders and Their Successors Can Avoid the Clichés that Inhibit Growth

"Steve Shwartz isn't particularly worried about artificial intelligence, and if anyone should know whether or not to panic, it's him."
-Sarajayne Sullivan, Hearst Publications

"Shwartz explains how AI works in simple terms, why people shouldn't worry about intelligent robots taking over the world, and the steps we need to take as a society to minimize the negative impacts of AI and maximize its positive influence."
-Jon Knox, Automotive Industries

Shwartz has boldly declared in his new book that the culture of fear around AI should be destroyed -- as anxiety over what AI can do doesn't accurately reflect the current iterations of the technology.-Kassidy Kelley, TechTarget
"With over 40 years in the field, Dr. Shwartz dives into the machine to help us understand what is really happening inside.
-Alan Reznik, orthopedist and author of I've Fallen and I Can Get Up

"Dr. Shwartz clearly explains why we need not fear intelligent evil robots in the near future. He forces us to think instead about the very serious societal issues arising from today's more limited AI."
-Christopher McLeod, managing partner, Elm Street Ventures

"Dr. Shwartz draws on his 40 years of leading artificial intelligence research and application to provide a clear understanding for executives and technical types that machine thinking and reasoning is still a distant hope--and not to expect machines to replace humans--while also providing what AI capabilities are changing the world today and in the nearer future."
-Bruce Gallager, partner, True Global Venture

About the Author

Steve Shwartz began his AI career working with Roger Schank as a postdoctoral researcher in the Yale University Artificial Intelligence Lab. Starting in the 1980s, Steve was a founder or cofounder of several AI companies, one of which created the award-winning Esperant business intelligence product. As the AI Winter of the 1990s set in, Steve transitioned into a career as a successful serial software entrepreneur and investor and created several companies that were either acquired or had public offerings.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fast Company Press (February 2, 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1735424536
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1735424538
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.72 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,371,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,860 in Artificial Intelligence & Semantics

Customer Reviews:
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Steven Shwartz

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Steve Shwartz began his AI career working with Roger Schank as a postdoctoral researcher in the Yale University Artificial Intelligence Lab. Starting in the 1980s, Steve was a founder or cofounder of several AI companies, one of which created the award-winning Esperant business intelligence product. As the AI Winter of the 1990s set in, Steve transitioned into a career as a successful serial software entrepreneur and investor and created several companies that were either acquired or had public offerings.

Visit aiperspectives.com for chapter summaries of the book and more information.

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52 global ratings

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Grady Harp

The truth about Artificial Intelligence – what it can and cannot do!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

Author Steven Shwartz earned his PhD in Cognitive Science from Johns Hopkins University, taught Statistics at Towson State University, then became a researcher in Computer Science at the Yale University Artificial Intelligence Lab. He founded Esperant, a leading Business Intelligence product producer. A popular in demand speaker and writer of articles and producer of two commercial patents, Steven transitioned into a career as a serial software entrepreneur and investor. In preparing to write this book - EVEL ROBOTS, KILLER COMPTERS, AND OTHER MYTHS, Steven’s goal as stated on his website was ‘to explain how AI works in simple terms, to explain why people shouldn’t worry about intelligent robots taking over the world, and to explain the steps we need to take as a society to minimize the negative impacts of AI and maximize the positive impacts.’ His other published book is APPLIED NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING.

This well-written book is one everyone should read – especially those fearing the impact of the ‘unknown effects’ of AI in all its permutations. As Steven opens his book he reflects on his progress in learning AI and then offers, ‘Through all theses years, I’ve grown frustrated at the fear-inducing hype around AI in popular culture and media and at the overstatement of AI’s capabilities from its vendors. It’s fair to say I have good understanding of AI, ho wit works, and what it can do. My goal in this book is to provide you with some of that knowledge.’

And after reading and digesting the explanations offer in this book Steven has proved that he can accomplish his goal. He covers the following topics - The social impact of AI, Fears worth having, A brief history of AI (one of the best written!), employment, privacy, Neural networks and deep learning, Natural language processing, Thinking and reasoning, Artificial general intelligence, and more. All the answers to the questions we all have about AI are comfortable explained here. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, April 21

One person found this helpful

Helpful

EB

You should fear your smart fridge more than a human-like robot

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 18, 2021

Verified Purchase

While Steven Shwartz addresses the evil robots and killer computers of his title, the most fascinating parts of this book are sections on how your personal assistant works (hint: Alexa really doesn't understand you), why facial recognition software is so flawed, and what makes self-driving cars work.

In his acknowledgements, Shwartz thanks his daughters for helping him ditch some of the technical stuff and revise the book for more clarity. Well, I can tell you, it's filled with tech anyway, but in a good way.

I worked in a Web company for awhile and have had a long romance with computer programming (I'm no good at it, but that doesn't mean I'm not attracted to it), hackers, and other aspects of coding, so I enjoyed learning more about the nuts and bolts (so to speak) of how various cutting-edge technologies works (or doesn't).

Shwartz does an excellent job of explaining all of this so we're better able to understand why his thesis stands: despite being able to create personal assistants that can answer questions for us, turn our lights off and on, and perform other feats that would have been amazing just thirty years ago, there will *not* be robots some day that will take over the earth and render human beings useless.

There's a bit of repetition in this book, but his subject is so complex I've excused it -- sometimes you have to reiterate certain points to make them clear.

I especially appreciated his take on the future of work, given all the advances in technology. So many other books I've read suggest that eventually we'll put ourselves out of business, that we'll have to figure out what to do with all the people without jobs. Shwartz sees this very differently, and it was refreshing to learn an expert in this world of technology sees a brighter future for all of us.

One person found this helpful

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Phil Bolos

Lots of good information

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 18, 2021

Verified Purchase

Evil Robots, Killer Computers, and Other Myths: The Truth About AI and the Future of Humanity by Steven Schwartz is an eye opening look at what artificial intelligence is, the different types of AI that are operating currently, and the truth behind what it can do and what it can not do. The author begins be taking us through waht AI is, its function, what it was designed for, etc. IT really is a nice background into what AI is all about. I am willing to bet that many people would be surprised by the history of this topic. There are also many different types of AI ranging from supervised, unsupervised, neural networks, deep learning, and many others. The applications are then explained next including self driving cars, simple things like the Alexa or Google Voice that we have in our homes, and the many other things that we take for granted. Finally, the author explains to us why it is impossible for AI to try and wipe us out and take over the planet. In a nutshell, it is just not possible with the technology that we have today or with the technology that we will have in the near future. WHEW! Take that Terminator!
I think that anyone who is curious about this topic would enjoy the read. Parts of it almost feel like science fiction, while other parts clearly are technical knowledge. There is some jargon that shows up in spots, but the author has done a good job of explaining these terms and phrases so that we can easily relate and understand what is going on. I think this was a great topic to write about with more and more of our world being dependent on technology.

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