T-Minus AI

One of the best books I've read on AI as it didn't get bogged down in super technical details, but helped the reader really understand the process of how AI generally works, the history of it, & the geopolitical race to secure the AI future.

The books goes into how the human mind works & how AI is generally similar on how it trains and learns info. The narrative throughout the book was very engaging & kept wanting to read on. I would recommend this to anyone interested in AI or the future, whether you're just starting out learning about AI or already know about it, there is definitely info in here for you.

Continuing my trend of reading science nonfiction, I snagged a copy of T-Minus AI in order to learn a bit more about the real-world realities of emerging artificial intelligence technologies as opposed to their fictional counterparts. While I had a vague idea of how AI had progressed over the past few decades, I wanted to gain a more in-depth understanding about how AI actually works and the current near-future implications of AI deployment in everyday life.

This books starts out by exploring the history of AI, focusing intently on the crucial steps taken throughout the twentieth century to develop AI into something that could have everyday applications. Then it summarizes the different types of AI and the various impacts that each one could have on individuals and governments—and the interplay between those two parties. The book then takes the time to explain how each of the various world superpowers has approached AI in the recent past and how they intend to approach it in the near future, as well as how those approaches have and will continue to effect global political relations and the socioeconomic welfare of those countries’ citizens.

Overall, I thought that T-Minus AI presented a thorough and well-organized look into the history, present, and likely future of AI technologies and convincingly impressed upon the reader the importance of being cognizant of how AI is and will come to be used in daily life. That said, I did have a few quibbles with the book, the biggest one being that I thought it occasionally went off on somewhat unnecessary tangents—the most obvious example being a lengthy history of the development of democracy that I don’t believe the average reads needs to understand the context of that chapter’s topic.

Anyway, this is a pretty good book if you have an interest in learning about the broad strokes of AI—historically, technically, and politically—and it does a good job of explaining all the issues (and solutions) that may arise as AI use becomes more and more common across the globe.

Rating: 3.5/5

Just like the space race in the 1950s, there is now intense geopolitical competition and rivalry between countries attempting to be the first to truly harness the power of AI. With the vast circumstances AI can be used in it is a powerful weapon to have in your arsenal, especially if you have discovered how it can improve prospects, national security and how it can be utilised militarily. Wielded as a weapon AI has the potential to become deadly and with China, Russia and The United States already playing a game of cat and mouse using AI against each other the possibility of it taking over many aspects of life in the near future is not so far-fetched. Michael Kanaan is an authority in the field of artificial intelligence and writes in easily comprehensible and accessible prose with no waffle. What makes this book particularly special is the fact that anyone could pick it up and understand it; Kanaan makes an often complex topic seem simple.

In T-Minus AI Kanaan explains the history of AI and how it has evolved over the last few decades, the benefits of utilising AI in everyday life and the negative connotations of it, in great detail. The implications of it evolving so much that it creates problems for mankind is a concern many people have, including scientists in the field right through to laypeople. It is structured in a readable manner and begins by describing the development of AI, the different types of it and exactly how global superpowers have used it to their benefit so far. This is a captivating and well-researched book which presents the history, present and future of AI in an eminently engaging fashion and explains the social, economic and political implications as well as the interplay between them. This is a must-read for anyone interested in what our outlook may be in the not too distant future. Many thanks to BenBella for an ARC.

This book was widely informative. Its something I would pick up and read again to make notes in. However, I felt I may have not been the target audience due to the fact I have an extensive background in computer science and cognitive science. Kanaan goes through the history of AI and its future and really breaks it down well for someone new to the field or someone who is merely curious about AI and its future. I have done my degree in this area so many of the concepts talked about I had relatively known and found myself skimming or skipping a few parts of the book. Nonetheless its a very informative book.

The author does a great job putting AI into context, from the past through the present and into the future. It is definitely written at a laypersons level, so no complex technical descriptions or formulas. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but as a technical person interested in the area of AI, nothing was too surprising, I did appreciate, however, the review of how many different countries are approaching their AI frameworks.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5 stars.

If you need to understand more clearly on what is the difference between artificial intelligence and machine learning and robots, this is the book. A very lucid and non-controversial take on the state of AI today and where it will be going in the near future.

Michael takes the reader in a very well thought out journey - from the beginning of time, the big bang and the evolution of humans. He clarifies the aspect of consciousness and why that would be different and difficult for the machines and makes it a huge departure from us humans. The different types of machine learning and AI are detailed well through the evolution of computing and the need for data as the base for the AI/ML. He, thankfully, predicts that the superintelligence kind of AI would not be in the timeline that we can perceive - so all the threats of matrix and terminator kind of movies will not be a reality. This is not a blank statement from him, but very well argued through the basics of what it means to achieve that level.

The book then closes in with the geo-political equations of becoming an AI superpower and leaves us with the knowledge of how AI can be a tool which can be used and abused. He reveals aspects of Chinese and Russian use of AI for not very ethical purposes. Hopefully this serves as a warning to all of us. The book closes with a show of the AI plans of major countries around the world .

I took away a lot from the book - from increased knowledge about the evolution of intelligence, AI and ML and
While being very important for human progress how these are tools which can easily be used for nefarious work. We already saw some of the AI/ML work from some of the governments (like China) in the handling of the COVID . I hope all countries awaken to this and come up with clear policies for the right use of such potential!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. It appears frequently in magazines, TV, radio, Internet, etc. But it is not clear what is AI and what is not, what can we expect from it, what risks and threats represents this technology, … This book from Michael Kanaan will give all of us a personal, business and social point of view of Artificial Intelligence in the close and medium range future.