Artificial Intelligence: 10 Things You Should Know

10 Things You Should Know

by Tim Rocktäschel

Uncover the fascinating fundamentals of artifical intelligence...In ten short and informative essays, Professor of AI at UCL and Team Lead of Google's DeepMind project, Tim Rockäschel, reveals everything we need to know about artificial intelligence. From what the futures holds for AI and why it continued to improve with more data, to how superhuman AI is attainable and why we still have to fold our own laundry, discover all of this and much, much more!Artificial 10 Things You Should Know is an illuminating and engaging guide to the most important area of science and technology today.

Genres: Nonfiction, Artificial Intelligence, Technology

128 pages, Hardcover

First published September 26, 2024

Reviews

[Alfred Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a nice gentle introduction to AI, but not particularly ground breaking. Has good sections on thought experiments on consciousness, reasons that LLMs can be intelligent even by being extremely proficient at guessing the next word in a sequence and outlines possible ways that AI research can overcome limitations in data by having some sort of reinforcement learning style system.

The book does potentially lack some discussion on AI safety and moral issues on data collection, its usage and labelling processes, but despite this, it's definitely worth spending a couple of hours to read this book.

[Dawit Isak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy enough for beginner to understand. Gives a good general introduction to the topic.

[Niketan Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick overview of AI. A good primer if you are a beginner. You will get a good start. Not a detailed exploration. You should read other detailed books for that.

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a growing world of AI, it seems we can’t know enough about the subject to arm ourselves with deeper understanding as it increasingly begins to be introduced into our everyday lives. There are so many benefits to AI but also scary considerations and of course the discussion ‘watif AI takez over the worldddd’ etc..

It’s important to know its applications, restrictions and its uses to our lives and there are many!

This book was great in breaking down information into short and succinct chapters. It’s such an enormous and complicated topic and I can’t claim to have understood it all but it was interesting nonetheless.

I did feel like some prior knowledge may have been helpful here as it was fairly intense in some parts but that’s probably my ignorance more than anything. It’s great at introducing the topic to you and providing you grounds for further reading.

I read it in near one sitting and it covered a broad range of AI. It was really insightful and enlightening in all things related to artificial intelligence.

Thank you to the author and publisher for this book on NetGalley in return for my honest thoughts and review.

[Rebecca Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting facts about AI as the title suggests. What I wasn’t expecting was the cheerleader writing it. I was expecting a more middle ground read. The facts alone. But the professor is definitely all for advancing AI. Even when he says they will become more intelligent than any human scientist at any point in their career. Or that they’re working on the problem of AI not having a body - iRobot anyone?

Not the book to read if you just want the facts. This is by someone who loves the subject and its advancement.

[Sadie Metcalfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this bcs when people talk seriously about AI and LLMs I just have no context for how this works and it honestly was a great and helpful and quick read. I’m still really curious about the connections between biological neural networks and artificial neural networks (it makes more sense when explaining in biological terms obviously bcs that is my background!)

Also just the theme of my introduction to AI and just in the past couple of weeks I have become so interested in environmental impacts of AI and just how detrimental it could be? Had this whole conference on the use of AI in precision medicine because it’s supposed to help with equitability but my thought is that if the environmental impact of AI use is really great, it will just go and have the strongest climate impacts on the same communities that need it for equitable healthcare??? If anyone is reading this and is curious about what I’m saying I have so many thoughts please text me. Also I want to learn more basically so tell me more!!!!!

[Isaac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a technical person. AI is indirectly relevant to my work, which is why I am interested on it. I am convinced that we will need to live with it and should therefore make the most of it.

My reasons to read a book like this one are to understand new aspects of AI (eg ‘compression is intelligence’ and the link with games) and to understand better aspects that I already know of (eg ‘what is a neural network’). For both, a non technical explanation is crucial. That, in my view, is the editor’s role. I am afraid that the editor could have done a better job working with the author. I know (from working at a different scale) that it’s not easy …

Another aspect of AI that I have not fully mastered yet is that there are different views about progress to general AI and risks. If I was writing a book like this one, I wouldn’t just offer my views; I’d offer a considered view about the relevant range of views. Again, perhaps this is the role of the editor.

[Paul Duplys · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're going to read one book on AI, make it this one. In an engaging and accurate (but not too technical) storytelling manner and on roughly 100 pages, Tim Rocktäschel:
- guides you through the main milestones in the history of AI,
- explains the basic working principles of Large Language Models (LLMs) and the current state of frontier models like GPT, Claude, Grok, and Mistral, and
- takes a look at the future of AI, including challenges such as AI safety and opportunities such as AI in robotics.

To me, this book was a page-turner and even though it’s a popular science book where you won’t find any formulas, etc., being a professor of AI at the University College London, Rocktäschel manages to compress the most important aspects of the science behind AI and, particularly LLMs, in this wonderful small book.

[Emma Breese · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sort of halfway house between a layman's guide and science book. I was pleasantly surprised that there was some addressing of how different forms of AI work, but even with a science background myself, I didn't quite follow all of it. That said, there was plenty of explanation for the non-technical reader too. If you are one, expect a challenging read.

[William Leonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting introduction into AI and the potential future and evolution of it, and how it will interplay with society, as well as giving an overview of the mechanics of AI. Slightly academic at times and would benefit from approachable speech. Will likely reread.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome intro to AI. Recommended by our global CEO - he read it in an hour - took me a little longer but definitely blew my mind. Who knew it started in the 1950’s? Worth the read if you are curious to understand more. 🤩

[Nemo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. It explains AI well and provides more information on the subject. I'd definitely read it again.

[Marc Buelens · Rating 3 out of 5]

10 things you should know about A.I. Some basic, rather elementary, reflections. I hoped to learn more from a UCL-professor.

[Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin. Good surface level introduction to several topics on AI. Would have liked some deeper explanations on certain topics. Enjoyed the moral dilemmas in the final chapter.

[Marcel Schwarz · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice little intro into ai, although a bit shallow

[Lel · Rating 3 out of 5]

AI scares me and this was a great way to learn bite sized bits of information to understand the subject, the way it works and what the potential of AI could be.

[Iain Hawkes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay, though I'm probably not the best person to review it. It's simultaniously too informative, yet not informative enough.

[Efe Sahin · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read a book, I try to take away at least one idea to carry with me for the rest of my life—until a better one comes along to replace it. Here’s an example:

I have always been puzzled by the concept of consciousness and had mostly ignored it… until I stumbled upon an explanation here that was both intuitive and persuasive.

I was familiar with the Ship of Theseus paradox, but I had never seen it applied to the debate about consciousness. That explanation was a real "AHA!" moment for me.

That aside, Professor Rocktäschel also delves into the concept of Open-Endedness. A must read if you are searching for unique ideas on how humanity can achieve artificial superintelligence. I mean, there are lots of experts out there saying, AI should be embodied (needs legs, arms, sight, touch etc) and some others used to argue that LLMs are enough as everything is language based... this book provides an essential puzzle piece to that problem which I wish to learn more about it.