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Artificial Intelligence: Rise of the Lightspeed Learners
Self-learning machines called AIs are popping up all around us. They’re real, and really important. They’re affecting our lives—as workers, consumers, investors, citizens, patients and students. AIs bring huge promise, but also existential risk. The biggest risk isn’t killer robots—it’s the renegade leaders, despots, and unrestrained hackers everywhere we should worry about.
Charles Jennings’ insightful new book, Artificial The Rise of the Lightspeed Learners presents sides of AI most people have never even considered before. That surprises are a main product of AIs. That AI cybersecurity is much more critical than traditional IT security. That, as Vladimir Putin put it, “the country that leads in AI will control the world.” Jennings blends insights into Silicon Valley, Washington D.C., and Beijing with insider AI stories, irreverent humor and strong opinions. He explores the global AI ecosystem from Cambridge to Beijing; and provides a stark assessment of AI activity in China—where he lived for two years working with senior government officials. He claims that the U.S. and China are in an AI horserace that will be the most important technology contest ever, with the outcome still very much in doubt.
Consisting of stories, musings, interviews, and more, it provides a timely and accessible explanation of AI and its key issues to the general reading public.
Charles Jennings’ insightful new book, Artificial The Rise of the Lightspeed Learners presents sides of AI most people have never even considered before. That surprises are a main product of AIs. That AI cybersecurity is much more critical than traditional IT security. That, as Vladimir Putin put it, “the country that leads in AI will control the world.” Jennings blends insights into Silicon Valley, Washington D.C., and Beijing with insider AI stories, irreverent humor and strong opinions. He explores the global AI ecosystem from Cambridge to Beijing; and provides a stark assessment of AI activity in China—where he lived for two years working with senior government officials. He claims that the U.S. and China are in an AI horserace that will be the most important technology contest ever, with the outcome still very much in doubt.
Consisting of stories, musings, interviews, and more, it provides a timely and accessible explanation of AI and its key issues to the general reading public.
216 pages, Paperback
Published August 8, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 23, 2020
Summary: A lot of great knowledge that comes from an actual practitioner at a higher level than just student or non-practicing academic. I really enjoyed this book.
It would mean a lot if you'd check out my vlog and consider following there. Ig: WhereIsMayLing Vlog: Diary of a Speed Reader
Kindle... no page numbers. Sucks, so it's by loc (whatever that means).
loc 147 - "If job losses described here are spread out over two generations, no one will much notice. If they're in full swing by 2025, as most I-banks and consulting companies predict, Western economies will be rocked to the core." I think though somewhere in between is the actuality, but closer to 2025.
loc 181 - He entered AI in 2014, coming from the internet area. But he's stating AI is primitive and also they are swarming and learning really fast.
loc 247 - The rise of the IoT is the rise of AI.
loc 282 - "What matters is not the the number of lines of code but the qualty of neural operations, such as curating data effectively, then feeding these data to AI, and conducting statistical analysis on the results; implementing feed-forward and feedback loops; and tweaking an ANN In the way a NASCAR mechanic might, dozens of times, before a big race." ANN stands for artificial neural networks.
loc 381 - "We in America must either engage together and control ai or watch as the Chinese - or out of control machines - do it for us. And we must engage in he old-fashion way: as citizens in a democracy, working together, with government in charge. " Intriguing way to put it. At this point, he's talking about the idea that we do not have an AI Strategy as China does, so right now AI is just going willy-nilly or it's being controlled by a few companies he later calls GAFA(Google, Apple, Facebook, AMZN).
loc 478 - He talks about Minsky's approach which was to model what humans do (The process of experts), but he says the turn came when people started modeling the brain itself (the process of the brain) and how it thinks. Maybe, yes? I mean, I felt like that was what Minsky's saying but perhaps I am colored by the way I think of Minsky vs. the man himself. I never met him.
Loc 493 - ANN is the bioinspired aspect of AI. From a visual recognition, they are great at extracting the component (pattern recognition) that is important, which is similar to how we do it as biological organisms do it.
Loc 582 - He divides AI industry into 3 parts:
Narrow or Weak AI (AI) - Very good at narrow pursuits like trying to find water on mars or identifying a specific type of pattern.
General or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - Reapplying what is learned in one field to another.
Super AI or Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) - This is the Ai people think will eat our grandchildren or children if you're a younger millennial.
Loc 708 - He talks about how practitioners generally roll their eyes at the concept of a singularity, but in fairness, it's annoying for you to work your tail off and make cool things only to have some neophyte tell you you're building the singularity ASI that is going to take over the world and kill people.
Loc 776 - He gives lots of examples of when robots or AI do unexpected things.
Loc 810 - AI can currently do a lot of unpredictable things. Things that are off the rule book, such as fry another opponents memory as a solution if it needs to.
Loc 1047 - The teamsters believe AI could be great. They do less at the wheel and the AI drives. They believe it is more about taking more time for society to transition. There are about 1mm teamsters according to this book.
Loc 1296 - We are slow in changing our ways, particularly in School. NorthWest Academy is pointed to as the right way to do it. I mean, yes and.... I think actually China has changed it pretty quickly esp with this current crisis situation. It's intriguing what will come.
Loc 1312 - Khan academy is poised to be in a great spot for the transformation that AI will have on education. The point is that we have to get people a lot smarter a lot faster.
Loc 1378 - "Complex human questions, philosophical and ethical questions, will lie at the heart of not just education but also all human civilization, as we all struggle to learn and redefine what it means to be human."
Loc 1721 - "China is on a steeper AI growth trajectory than the united States, but China now has momentum on its side." It's crazy because I have seen the papers posted by McKinsey with irrelevant stats designed to make us feel ok about ourselves, but the truth is, they are quickly taking the lead.
Loc 1737 - He writes the ways in which China could invade our systems and effectively take over another nation. I mean, wouldn't the smarter strategy be to take over other nations and leave the US for last? I'm just saying. That seems to be the bigger implication if you think about their 3 pronged strategy.
Loc 1754 - Made in China 2025, 2017 New Generation AI Development Plan, One Belt, One Road. These are all things you should be upon as relates to the above conversation.
Loc 1785 -He things Beijing needs to look more like Silicon Valley. I think there might be some other scenarios that still get them there. He also things that Washington needs to be more like Beijing as relates to bothering to create a strategy. That's a frustrating thing, b/c it doesn't look like that will actually happen.
Loc 1819 - "AI favors scale, and though we in the United States now have the largest computing infrastructure, no country has the potential to scale technologically like China, internally, and now internationally, as well."
Loc 2012 - He talks about open source and how that's very relevant for Ai security.
Loc 2211 - He talks about the 21st century security paradox. It's like a different sort of cold war, but now extended into AI.
Loc 2266 - He goes country by country on the world's most AI Savvy gov's. His top 10 are: China, EU, Canada, Singapore, Israel, US, Estonia.
So intrigued by the last one. The Wifi is surprisingly good there, it's true. So too in much of the Eastern block although Estonia is a little bit different from the other countries in that bloc.
Loc 2461 - The "US Fed Gov, on its own, cannot regulate AI and should not try to do so for 3 reasons:"
1) lack of enough experts 2) it will likely only regulate the US and hamper the ability to improve vs other nations 3) Moving fwd is likely more important than regulating in a global scenario.
loc 2677 - His fav AI in Alpha order: Amazon, Baidu, Intel, MSFT, CRM
I'm surprised IBM and Googl isn't on the list. but whatev's.
Loc 2725 - He talks about the data "Does the Ai have access to high quality data?"
Loc 2882 - He talks about AI poodles vs. AI crows. Most will be in the AI poodle category (helping people to do things on command). A few areas will be AI Crows - helping people learn and unsupervised learning type stuff.
Loc 3032 - "'The internet is controlled by those who understand it.' AI is as well." His point is you should try to get smarter, read a lot, learn who's in it.
Loc 3049 - "The immigration barriers thrown up by trump have had the unintended ... effect of making Toronto the mecca of AI talent for the world."
Loc 3082 - He sees a way that AI can create jobs, the way data centers created jobs for the pacific NW.
Loc 3180... He's got this massive set of principals in the back. They rae great. But wow, it's a long list.
It would mean a lot if you'd check out my vlog and consider following there. Ig: WhereIsMayLing Vlog: Diary of a Speed Reader
Kindle... no page numbers. Sucks, so it's by loc (whatever that means).
loc 147 - "If job losses described here are spread out over two generations, no one will much notice. If they're in full swing by 2025, as most I-banks and consulting companies predict, Western economies will be rocked to the core." I think though somewhere in between is the actuality, but closer to 2025.
loc 181 - He entered AI in 2014, coming from the internet area. But he's stating AI is primitive and also they are swarming and learning really fast.
loc 247 - The rise of the IoT is the rise of AI.
loc 282 - "What matters is not the the number of lines of code but the qualty of neural operations, such as curating data effectively, then feeding these data to AI, and conducting statistical analysis on the results; implementing feed-forward and feedback loops; and tweaking an ANN In the way a NASCAR mechanic might, dozens of times, before a big race." ANN stands for artificial neural networks.
loc 381 - "We in America must either engage together and control ai or watch as the Chinese - or out of control machines - do it for us. And we must engage in he old-fashion way: as citizens in a democracy, working together, with government in charge. " Intriguing way to put it. At this point, he's talking about the idea that we do not have an AI Strategy as China does, so right now AI is just going willy-nilly or it's being controlled by a few companies he later calls GAFA(Google, Apple, Facebook, AMZN).
loc 478 - He talks about Minsky's approach which was to model what humans do (The process of experts), but he says the turn came when people started modeling the brain itself (the process of the brain) and how it thinks. Maybe, yes? I mean, I felt like that was what Minsky's saying but perhaps I am colored by the way I think of Minsky vs. the man himself. I never met him.
Loc 493 - ANN is the bioinspired aspect of AI. From a visual recognition, they are great at extracting the component (pattern recognition) that is important, which is similar to how we do it as biological organisms do it.
Loc 582 - He divides AI industry into 3 parts:
Narrow or Weak AI (AI) - Very good at narrow pursuits like trying to find water on mars or identifying a specific type of pattern.
General or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - Reapplying what is learned in one field to another.
Super AI or Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) - This is the Ai people think will eat our grandchildren or children if you're a younger millennial.
Loc 708 - He talks about how practitioners generally roll their eyes at the concept of a singularity, but in fairness, it's annoying for you to work your tail off and make cool things only to have some neophyte tell you you're building the singularity ASI that is going to take over the world and kill people.
Loc 776 - He gives lots of examples of when robots or AI do unexpected things.
Loc 810 - AI can currently do a lot of unpredictable things. Things that are off the rule book, such as fry another opponents memory as a solution if it needs to.
Loc 1047 - The teamsters believe AI could be great. They do less at the wheel and the AI drives. They believe it is more about taking more time for society to transition. There are about 1mm teamsters according to this book.
Loc 1296 - We are slow in changing our ways, particularly in School. NorthWest Academy is pointed to as the right way to do it. I mean, yes and.... I think actually China has changed it pretty quickly esp with this current crisis situation. It's intriguing what will come.
Loc 1312 - Khan academy is poised to be in a great spot for the transformation that AI will have on education. The point is that we have to get people a lot smarter a lot faster.
Loc 1378 - "Complex human questions, philosophical and ethical questions, will lie at the heart of not just education but also all human civilization, as we all struggle to learn and redefine what it means to be human."
Loc 1721 - "China is on a steeper AI growth trajectory than the united States, but China now has momentum on its side." It's crazy because I have seen the papers posted by McKinsey with irrelevant stats designed to make us feel ok about ourselves, but the truth is, they are quickly taking the lead.
Loc 1737 - He writes the ways in which China could invade our systems and effectively take over another nation. I mean, wouldn't the smarter strategy be to take over other nations and leave the US for last? I'm just saying. That seems to be the bigger implication if you think about their 3 pronged strategy.
Loc 1754 - Made in China 2025, 2017 New Generation AI Development Plan, One Belt, One Road. These are all things you should be upon as relates to the above conversation.
Loc 1785 -He things Beijing needs to look more like Silicon Valley. I think there might be some other scenarios that still get them there. He also things that Washington needs to be more like Beijing as relates to bothering to create a strategy. That's a frustrating thing, b/c it doesn't look like that will actually happen.
Loc 1819 - "AI favors scale, and though we in the United States now have the largest computing infrastructure, no country has the potential to scale technologically like China, internally, and now internationally, as well."
Loc 2012 - He talks about open source and how that's very relevant for Ai security.
Loc 2211 - He talks about the 21st century security paradox. It's like a different sort of cold war, but now extended into AI.
Loc 2266 - He goes country by country on the world's most AI Savvy gov's. His top 10 are: China, EU, Canada, Singapore, Israel, US, Estonia.
So intrigued by the last one. The Wifi is surprisingly good there, it's true. So too in much of the Eastern block although Estonia is a little bit different from the other countries in that bloc.
Loc 2461 - The "US Fed Gov, on its own, cannot regulate AI and should not try to do so for 3 reasons:"
1) lack of enough experts 2) it will likely only regulate the US and hamper the ability to improve vs other nations 3) Moving fwd is likely more important than regulating in a global scenario.
loc 2677 - His fav AI in Alpha order: Amazon, Baidu, Intel, MSFT, CRM
I'm surprised IBM and Googl isn't on the list. but whatev's.
Loc 2725 - He talks about the data "Does the Ai have access to high quality data?"
Loc 2882 - He talks about AI poodles vs. AI crows. Most will be in the AI poodle category (helping people to do things on command). A few areas will be AI Crows - helping people learn and unsupervised learning type stuff.
Loc 3032 - "'The internet is controlled by those who understand it.' AI is as well." His point is you should try to get smarter, read a lot, learn who's in it.
Loc 3049 - "The immigration barriers thrown up by trump have had the unintended ... effect of making Toronto the mecca of AI talent for the world."
Loc 3082 - He sees a way that AI can create jobs, the way data centers created jobs for the pacific NW.
Loc 3180... He's got this massive set of principals in the back. They rae great. But wow, it's a long list.
December 28, 2019
Entrepreneur and author Charles Jennings wants to help non-techies understand artificial intelligence (AI). His new book, Artificial Intelligence: Rise of the Lightspeed Learners, is a short and fascinating introduction to how AI affects our lives today and what's in store for the future.
Artificial Intelligence, now generally known as AI, is self-learning software. Jennings uses the term “Lightspeed Learners” to highlight how AIs leverage our connected global infrastructure to learn very, very quickly.
Jennings uses stories, interviews, humor, opinion, and informed musings to explain AI to a general audience. He wants people to understand the risk in the very short term of an “AI war” and the not too distant risk that AI will be out of human control.
Artificial Intelligence, now generally known as AI, is self-learning software. Jennings uses the term “Lightspeed Learners” to highlight how AIs leverage our connected global infrastructure to learn very, very quickly.
Jennings uses stories, interviews, humor, opinion, and informed musings to explain AI to a general audience. He wants people to understand the risk in the very short term of an “AI war” and the not too distant risk that AI will be out of human control.
May 27, 2019
This is a must-read book if you want to get up to speed on Artificial Intelligence and where it's heading. (Full disclosure: I wrote the foreward!). Charles Jennings is the guy who knows all about AI, and lays it out in terms that we can all understand. He particularly raises a red flag, (pun intended), about the Chinese effort to dominate this vital space. I also highly recommend the audio book, it comes complete with some entertaining and clever intermezzos!
December 23, 2021
This is kind of 3.5 for me.
Technically book is ~200 pages long and it could be half of that...
A lot of very interesting concepts, concerns, definitely a lot of expertise of the writer, and definitely a lot of cool insights but ultimately a bit chaotic writing and gets too boring/repetitive/political about 60% in.
Technically book is ~200 pages long and it could be half of that...
A lot of very interesting concepts, concerns, definitely a lot of expertise of the writer, and definitely a lot of cool insights but ultimately a bit chaotic writing and gets too boring/repetitive/political about 60% in.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews