'The Sentient Machine: The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence' by Amir Husain is a thoughtful and reasoned look at the continuing advent of intelligent machines and what it might mean for us humans.

The book is divided in to 3 sections: What is AI; Today and Tomorrow; and The Future. The author makes a case for his love of technology and his lifelong study of computing. A discussion of what is artificial intelligence (AI) and what is not is given. Fears are brought to light, including those of some famous opponents. The author discusses how these anti-AI sentiments may hamper the development of technology that we may really need. Discussion is made about the internet of things, healthcare, warfare, financial markets among other things.

I like books about a hopeful future, and this book is one. It's also not blindly optimistic. It is reasoned and logical in it's approach, and does point out ways that AI could fail us. I appreciated this approach to this subject.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Scribner and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

I found this book both confusing and incredibly one-sided. The author is definitely convinced of the wonderfulness of artificial intelligence. I'm not sure what I expected to get from this book, but I know I didn't get it. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

In THE SENTIENT MACHINE Amir Husain, CEO of SparkCognition in Austin, Texas, focuses on "the coming age of artificial intelligence." He opens with a story regarding the happenstance, due to having the right doctor with the right search terms, of finding an effective medical treatment for his extremely painful cluster headache condition. From there, he refers to the benefit of having machines keep up more effectively than humans with the many medical advances – or their potential contribution in numerous other fields like astronomy, manufacturing, and financial services. He goes on in Part One to outline the history of our fears about technological change, to explain what AI is, and to acknowledge the concerns expressed by Elon Musk, Bill Gates and others. In Part Two, he explains that trying to suppress artificial intelligence work, "or subject it to draconian regulation, will be incredibly harmful to us as a civilization." The final section looks to the future, reflecting on what is uniquely human and what is our purpose. THE SENTIENT MACHINE contains suggestions for further reading, extensive notes and a detailed index.

Husain does a brilliant job of explaining deep learning, machine learning, neural networks, and of course, artificial intelligence. He describes how we got to where we are today and the ways that these 'sentient machines' may alter our future. I really appreciated the real-world explanations - like his description of how AI is changing warfare and cybersecurity.

He presents the way he believes governments and nations should approach these future technologies and presents valid arguments. Perhaps my only criticism is that Husain is so deeply embedded in this world and in awe of the machines that I couldn't help but feel his view is a bit optimistic.

I don't know if all the books on Artificial Intelligence are intelligent.
This certainly is.
Written in a clear and fluent style, it presents many aspects of Artificial Intelligence. Starting from the fears of us human beings, it shows - through the evolutions, risks and features of medical, military, financial, cognitive and so on developments - that the best way to address the challenges of AI is precisely to fully develop AI. Only so, we will able to thrive and satisfy our purpose as mankind: to more and more explore and understand the treasures of the universe in which we live.
This book is a real gem. Take the opportunity, read it!

I recently picked up a copy of Amir Husain’s The Sentient Machine: The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence. The book reminds me of Bill Gates’ The Road Ahead, published in 1997 when VHS was king, everyone went to Blockbuster, and the Sony Discman finally had skip protection. Gates’ described a future of Netflixesque streaming, Google-like searches, and Apple Pay-like transactions; all things that are common place today. Amir takes a similar approach and the future he paints has artificial intelligence taking center stage.

The Sentient Machine by Amir Husain is a fascinating look at the many implications humans will face as artificial intelligence (AI) begins to play a greater role in our society. The Sentient Machine had me at the author's discovery of a Commodore 64 in 1982. I was a senior in a computer class that year. I, like the author since that day, have been mesmerized by technology ever since. The author noted that some would relate to his story while others would not. I can so relate, even though I did not immerse myself in technology, computers have played a major role in my life since 1999.

I admire that Mr. Husain writes with such optimism for what is sometime very soon going to be a reality in the world we live in. Some will not see AI, drones, or the complete loss of privacy with such optimism. I agree wholeheartedly that AI, once integrated into society, will become a great asset to all, but some people will not see things this way, and their outlook for the future will not be as positive.

The Sentient Machine is written from a technical perspective and leaves moral judgment out of it. I appreciated the purely technical aspect of this book because of its ability to allow the reader to fully comprehend all the scenarios that are laid out regarding human interaction with artificial intelligence.

I also appreciated the real-life narrative about the possible outcomes of AI in our military, healthcare, and business world. A very informative, futuristic book that is well written, easy to read, and a pleasure to review.

I requested this book from NetGalley to review due to its subject matter.

It is easy to automate everything – in our minds. There are shelves of futuristic books extolling the wonderful era where we have nothing to say or do, except sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. The Sentient Machine is another one of these, focused on the coming wonders of artificial intelligence (AI).

Our minds are too slow to react, our capacity is too small to comprehend, and the associations we make are too clouded and irrelevant for the specific task at hand. AI has none of these drawbacks, and can perform on our behalf far better than we can ourselves. Left to its own devices, AI systems can invent solutions, designs and processes that would never occur to us.

But Amir Husain only seems to notice the upside. The better diagnostics, better performance, defense, security and efficiency. His wonderful world is one of total surveillance all the time. Every object is capable of sensing something the AI system can accept, store and interpret. Body functions, mood, antisocial behavior – will all be recorded and saved. Human judgment becomes irrelevant. The sky is cloudy with drones from every conceivable company, service and government, following people, sensing outlying behavior, delivering packages, doing research, looking for antisocial crimes, and watching other drones. Drones will be pocket sized to literally follow people, perhaps into the subway or into their apartments. Many will be armed. But Husain doesn’t go there. He’s thrilled with the potential for good from drones. And everything AI.

The final few chapters are philosophical. Husain points out we don’t know what we don’t know, we might well adapt to the new world of AI with a whole different outlook. It might open up other things for us to do. In the mean time, people are worried about losing their careers, being unable to feed and house their families, and completely losing all quality of life to the superrich, a situation he says he doesn’t want to minimize. He even points out, I guess to show that humanity is unequal, that fewer than ten people have more wealth than the bottom half of humanity. So while AI is a wonderful development, watch your back.

David Wineberg