Best of
Artificial-Intelligence

2018

Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms


Hannah Fry - 2018
    It’s time we stand face-to-digital-face with the true powers and limitations of the algorithms that already automate important decisions in healthcare, transportation, crime, and commerce. Hello World is indispensable preparation for the moral quandaries of a world run by code, and with the unfailingly entertaining Hannah Fry as our guide, we’ll be discussing these issues long after the last page is turned.

AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order


Kai-Fu Lee - 2018
    Kai-Fu Lee—one of the world’s most respected experts on AI and China—reveals that China has suddenly caught up to the US at an astonishingly rapid and unexpected pace.In AI Superpowers, Kai-Fu Lee argues powerfully that because of these unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power.Most experts already say that AI will have a devastating impact on blue-collar jobs. But Lee predicts that Chinese and American AI will have a strong impact on white-collar jobs as well. Is universal basic income the solution? In Lee’s opinion, probably not.  But he provides a clear description of which jobs will be affected and how soon, which jobs can be enhanced with AI, and most importantly, how we can provide solutions to some of the most profound changes in human history that are coming soon.

Alpha Test


David Pendleton - 2018
    Using a new technology known as Immersive Virtual Reality or IVR you could truly experience the game as if you were in it. For someone who has been confined to a wheelchair all of his life, the promise was impossible to ignore but only a few would be invited to take part in the Alpha test of the new game. Devon decided he would be one of those few To ensure he would be chosen he took the most unlikely combination of skills specializing primarily as a craftsman and secondarily as a healer. The best race for these skill trees is a Gnome but that further weakens his ability to fight and survive. Still, it is only the Alpha test and once in he can change it when they move to Closed Beta. What could go wrong? Soon he finds out just how weak his choices seem to the developers who figure he will die a lot and always be a Nobody. Name chosen Gnobody sets out to take on Angromoria and it is everything he could hope for until it becomes the only thing he may ever know.

The Robots of Gotham


Todd McAulty - 2018
    One quarter of the country is under foreign occupation. Manhattan has been annexed by a weird robot monarchy, and in Tennessee, a permanent peace is being delicately negotiated between the battered remnants of the U.S. government and an envoy of implacable machines.Canadian businessman Barry Simcoe arrives in occupied Chicago days before his hotel is attacked by a rogue war machine. In the aftermath, he meets a dedicated Russian medic with the occupying army, and 19 Black Winter, a badly damaged robot. Together they stumble on a machine conspiracy to unleash a horrific plague—and learn that the fabled American resistance is not as extinct as everyone believes. Simcoe races against time to prevent the extermination of all life on the continent . . . and uncover a secret that America’s machine conquerors are desperate to keep hidden.

Kill Count


Michael-Scott Earle - 2018
    But when his AI captor pumps Jay full of an insanely powerful liquid metal armor, he soon discovers the kidnapping was only the beginning of his trials. As the bloodthirsty AI trains Jay to harvest souls and increase the duo’s power, Jay learns there is a whole universe of bad guys who need killing. And when Jay’s unwavering moral compass puts him at odds with the plans of an alien mercenary company, he’s soon on the run with a gorgeous space princess. Urged to harvest souls by his AI partner, Jay must learn to put his awesome powers to work for the good guys. The universe just got a whole lot more dangerous, and a hell of a lot more fun.

Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car—And How It Will Reshape Our World


Lawrence D. Burns - 2018
    Soon, few of us will own our own automobiles and instead will get around in driverless electric vehicles that we summon with the touch of an app. We will be liberated from driving, prevent over 90% of car crashes, provide freedom of mobility to the elderly and disabled, and decrease our dependence on fossil fuels. Autonomy is the story of the maverick engineers and computer nerds who are creating the revolution. Longtime advisor to the Google Self-Driving Car team and former GM research and development chief Lawrence D. Burns provides the perfectly-timed history of how we arrived at this point, in a character-driven and heavily reported account of the unlikely thinkers who accomplished what billion-dollar automakers never dared.Beginning with the way 9/11 spurred the U.S. government to set a million-dollar prize for a series of off-road robot races in the Mojave Desert up to the early 2016 stampede to develop driverless technology, Autonomy is a page-turner that represents a chronicle of the past, diagnosis of the present, and prediction of the future—the ultimate guide to understanding the driverless car and navigating the revolution it sparks.

AIQ: How People and Machines Are Smarter Together


Nick Polson - 2018
    AIQ explores the fascinating history of the ideas that drive this technology of the future and demystifies the core concepts behind it; the result is a positive and entertaining look at the great potential unlocked by marrying human creativity with powerful machines.” —Steven D. Levitt, bestselling co-author of Freakonomics From leading data scientists Nick Polson and James Scott, what everyone needs to know to understand how artificial intelligence is changing the world and how we can use this knowledge to make better decisions in our own lives. Dozens of times per day, we all interact with intelligent machines that are constantly learning from the wealth of data now available to them. These machines, from smart phones to talking robots to self-driving cars, are remaking the world in the 21st century in the same way that the Industrial Revolution remade the world in the 19th century. AIQ is based on a simple premise: if you want to understand the modern world, then you have to know a little bit of the mathematical language spoken by intelligent machines. AIQ will teach you that language—but in an unconventional way, anchored in stories rather than equations. You will meet a fascinating cast of historical characters who have a lot to teach you about data, probability, and better thinking. Along the way, you'll see how these same ideas are playing out in the modern age of big data and intelligent machines—and how these technologies will soon help you to overcome some of your built-in cognitive weaknesses, giving you a chance to lead a happier, healthier, more fulfilled life.

Smart Business: What Alibaba's Success Reveals about the Future of Strategy


Ming Zeng - 2018
    But they don't yet know what replaces it. As everyone and everything becomes more interconnected and digitized, how do you operate, compete, and win?Ming Zeng, the former Chief of Staff and strategy adviser to Alibaba Group's founder Jack Ma, explains how the latest technological developments, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, the mobile internet, and cloud computing are redefining how value is created. Written especially for those outside the technology industry or the startup arena, this book introduces a simple, overarching framework to guide strategy formulation and execution in this data-rich and highly interactive environment.Revealing the revolutionary practices that he and his team have developed at Alibaba, Zeng shows how to: Automate decisions through machine learning Create products informed by real-time data from customers Determine the right strategic positioning to maximize value from platforms and suppliers Repurpose your organization to further human insight and enable creativity Lead your company's transformation into a smart businessWith insights into the strategies and tools used by leaders at Alibaba and other companies such as Ruhan and Red Collar, in a variety of industries from furniture making to banking to custom tailoring, Smart Business outlines a radically new approach to strategy that can be applied everywhe

Gods Reunited


Erik Schubach - 2018
     She brings with her hundreds of Olympian men rescued from the clutches of the Titans by the legendary Valkyrie, Kara the Wild One. Along with a peace envoy of Asgard intent on coming to a peace accord and mutual defense pact with Olympus. Olympus comes under attack, and Artemis and the Asgard must stand against the oncoming enemy. (The Tales From Olympus are the continuation of the Valkyrie Chronicles)

Advances in Financial Machine Learning


Marcos López de Prado - 2018
    Today, ML algorithms accomplish tasks that - until recently - only expert humans could perform. And finance is ripe for disruptive innovations that will transform how the following generations understand money and invest.In the book, readers will learn how to:Structure big data in a way that is amenable to ML algorithms Conduct research with ML algorithms on big data Use supercomputing methods and back test their discoveries while avoiding false positives Advances in Financial Machine Learning addresses real life problems faced by practitioners every day, and explains scientifically sound solutions using math, supported by code and examples. Readers become active users who can test the proposed solutions in their individual setting.Written by a recognized expert and portfolio manager, this book will equip investment professionals with the groundbreaking tools needed to succeed in modern finance.

Architects of Intelligence: The truth about AI from the people building it


Martin Ford - 2018
    of Toronto and Google), Rodney Brooks (Rethink Robotics), Yann LeCun (Facebook) , Fei-Fei Li (Stanford and Google), Yoshua Bengio (Univ. of Montreal), Andrew Ng (AI Fund), Daphne Koller (Stanford), Stuart Russell (UC Berkeley), Nick Bostrom (Univ. of Oxford), Barbara Grosz (Harvard), David Ferrucci (Elemental Cognition), James Manyika (McKinsey), Judea Pearl (UCLA), Josh Tenenbaum (MIT), Rana el Kaliouby (Affectiva), Daniela Rus (MIT), Jeff Dean (Google), Cynthia Breazeal (MIT), Oren Etzioni (Allen Institute for AI), Gary Marcus (NYU), and Bryan Johnson (Kernel).Martin Ford is a prominent futurist, and author of Financial Times Business Book of the Year, Rise of the Robots. He speaks at conferences and companies around the world on what AI and automation might mean for the future. Editorial reviews: "In his newest book, Architects of Intelligence, Martin Ford provides us with an invaluable opportunity to learn from some of the most prominent thought leaders about the emerging fields of science that are shaping our future." -Al Gore, Former Vice President of the US "AI is going to shape our future, and Architects of Intelligence offers a unique and fascinating collection of perspectives from the top researchers and entrepreneurs who are driving progress in the field." - Eric Schmidt, former Chairman and CEO, Google "The best way to understand the challenges and consequences of AGI is to see inside the minds of industry experts shaping the field. Architects of Intelligence gives you that power." -Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator and co-chairman of OpenAI "Architects of Intelligence gets you inside the minds of the people building the technology that is going to transform our world. This is a book that everyone should read." -Reid Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn

Augmented


Anthony James - 2018
     Deep underground, something waits. It’s hostile and immune to every known weapon. Its arrival threatens much more than this single planet. What begins as a standard in-out mission leads to warfare on a galactic scale and a confrontation between two well-armed fleets. Keller is the best spaceship pilot in the Corps and Nation has his own unique skills. They’re going to have a hard time turning this situation into a positive. Augmented is a high-action science fiction adventure involving massive space battles, overwhelming odds and new technologies. It is the first book in the Transcended series. Book 2: Fleet Vanguard is available now.

Compassionate Artificial Superintelligence AI 5.0 - AI with Blockchain, BMI, Drone, IOT, and Biometric Technologies


Amit Ray - 2018
    The book explains how the emerging technologies like Internet of things (IoT), Drone, Brain-Computer-Interface, Blockchain, Big data can be used with deep learning and other modern artificial intelligence (AI) architectures for the ultimate level of joint evolution of human and machine superintelligence. Humans and AI systems are co-evolving. Gradually they are becoming co-dependent. The gaps between human and AI systems are reducing. Establishing heart to heart communication is a must. Tomorrow's AI based systems must be able to understand humans from its depth and not just fulfill the surface level requirements. Sensitivity towards human pain, mistakes, and sufferings must be the part of the evolving new AI systems.Serving humanity intelligently is held up as the “gold standard” of AI based systems. But, with the emergence of new technologies and AI systems with bio-metric data storage, surveillance, tracking and big data analysis, humanity and the society is facing a threat today from evilly designed AI systems in the hands of monster governments and irresponsible people. Humanity is on the verge of digital slavery. Now the primary requirement of a AI based system is that not only it should serve humanity but also should not do any harm to the human liberty, society, environment and the humanity at large. Moreover, AI should act morally, socially, responsibly and compassionately. Dr. Ray calls it Compassionate Artificial Superintelligence or "AI 5.0", which empowers humanity and machine with super-intelligence, super-creativity and super-compassion, which will help humanity and machine to reach new levels of evolution of consciousness. Such compassionate intelligent systems would be a boon to the human society rather than being an evil force.To obtain maturity in new AI systems, AI must focus on solving social issues intelligently. Solving the social issues like terrorism, loneliness, digital slavery, corruption and social inequality must be the part of the new compassionate AI systems. Human freedom and empowerment should be one of the primary criteria. In this book Dr. Ray says that compassionate artificial superintelligent (CAS) system will have the potential to free the humanity from corruption and other evils. The real challenge is how to digitize and incorporate the human values like compassion, forgiveness, bravery, morality, love and creativity in AI based systems. In this book Dr. Ray explains compassionate artificial intelligence in depth. The book provides the blueprint, directions, frameworks and strategies to develop such compassionate artificial superintelligent systems in coming days.

Compassionate Artificial Intelligence


Amit Ray - 2018
    Compassionate AI address the issues for creating solutions for some of the challenges the humanity is facing today, like the need for compassionate care-giving, helping physically and mentally challenged people, reducing human pain and diseases, stopping nuclear warfare, preventing mass destruction weapons, tackling terrorism and stopping the exploitation of innocent citizens by monster governments through digital surveillance. The book also talks about compassionate AI for precision medicine, new drug discovery, education, and legal system. Dr. Ray explained the DeepCompassion algorithms, five design principles and eleven key behavioral principle of compassionate AI systems. The book also explained several compassionate AI projects. Compassionate AI is the best practical guide for AI students, researchers, entrepreneurs, business leaders looking to get true value from the adoption of compassion in machine learning technology.

Ethics and Data Science


Mike Loukides - 2018
    Yet, ethical principles for working with data have been available for decades. The real issue today is how to put those principles into action. With this report, authors Mike Loukides, Hilary Mason, and DJ Patil examine practical ways for making ethical data standards part of your work every day. To help you consider all of possible ramifications of your work on data projects, this report includes: A sample checklist that you can adapt for your own procedures Five framing guidelines (the Five C’s) for building data products: consent, clarity, consistency, control, and consequences Suggestions for building ethics into your data-driven culture Now is the time to invest in a deliberate practice of data ethics, for better products, better teams, and better outcomes. Get a copy of this report and learn what it takes to do good data science today.

Galactic Startup


Brian Whiting - 2018
    Their world-changing technology is sought by the government, and they are forced to go into hiding while they perfect it. Their adventures into orbit and beyond become a global sensation. As they navigate fame, family and those who are determined to stop them, little do they know that their little startup could have galactic consequences once they discover a derelict spaceship.

When Harry Met Chunglie: ...it was murder. A Space Opera Comedy


Jack Q McNeil - 2018
    Of her worst day... Monday morning, about ten... A Human female's life will be saved because an ancient alien can't stand dickheads. Harry (the Human female, her dad had a family issue) hoped a new job as detective marshal on the planet Smuds, would bring adventure and weird aliens. It did. Chunglie is weirder than most, and proud of it. When bodies are found on a spaceship, Chunglie comes to realise his new friend is the only one who can solve the mystery and find the killer. But the killer has worked that out too, and it's up to Chunglie to keep Harry alive. You will enjoy this story, because everyone likes to see the dauntless alien sidekick come through for the win… yes?

Intelligence and Spirit


Reza Negarestani - 2018
    The history of philosophy conceived as the elaboration of a program for artificial general intelligence; intelligence understood as the impersonal and collective evolution of a thought that constructs itself according to a view from nowhere and nowhen.In Intelligence and Spirit Reza Negarestani formulates the ultimate form of intelligence as a theoretical and practical thought unfettered by the temporal order of things, a real movement capable of overcoming any state of affairs that, from the perspective of the present, may appear to be the complete totality of its history.Building on Hegel’s account of geist as a multi-agent conception of mind and Kant’s transcendental psychology as a functional analysis of the conditions of possibility of having mind, Negarestani provides a critique of both classical humanism and dominant trends in posthumanism.This remarkable fusion of continental philosophy in the form of a renewal of the speculative ambitions of German Idealism, and analytic philosophy in the form of extended thought-experiments and a philosophy of artificial languages, opens up new perspectives on the meaning of human intelligence, and explores the real potential of posthuman intelligence and what it means for us to live in its prehistory.

Scimitar's Glory (Swordships Odyssey)


Dietmar Arthur Wehr - 2018
    7th Fleet discovers that one of those races is moving to attack. In a moment of panic, the commanding admiral orders the fleet to attempt a risky jump through hyperspace. They miss hitting their target star’s gravity well and end up deep in unexplored space with a shockingly long trip home and not nearly enough food to last that long. With war now raging in their home systems, the officers of 7th Fleet must find a way to put aside their egos, ambitions and fears in order to make it back, and they know that not all of them will. Scimitar’s Glory is the first book in a new, fast-paced, action-packed military SF series: Swordships Odyssey. The second book, Excalibur's Quest, is already available for pre-order. Excerpt: With a long, risky jump like this, Dejanus would have expected Corregidor’s astrogational AI to take at least ten minutes to aim the ship as precisely as possible to the distant star’s center. She was therefore surprised and somewhat alarmed when the flagship signaled to the rest of the fleet that they could start to match her trajectory after only half that time. “Goddammit, what’s the rush?” she said to Koenig who was the only other human on the Bridge. “There’s no possible way the Jab fleet can catch us before we jump, even if we take another hour to do it. Why not take a few extra minutes to get the most accurate trajectory possible?” When it became clear that Koenig had nothing to say, she continued. “Astro, I want you to check the flagship’s alignment with Alpha9 while we match vectors. Let me know if you think the flagship’s vector could be better.” That extra task delayed Excalibur’s alignment, and therefore she became the last ship in the fleet to signal her readiness for the jump. “Fleet Commander on Tac2, Commander,” said the com AI. Dejanus switched channels to her Command Pod. “Excalibur Actual speaking,” said Dejanus in the formal form of address that ship COs normally didn’t bother with. “What’s taking your Astro so long to get aligned, Commander?” Rostov didn’t bother to hide his annoyance. “Just double-checking the overall jump trajectory, Admiral.” Dejanus thought she heard Rostov swear under his breath, but it could have been her imagination. “You tell your Astro that if Excalibur isn’t aligned in the next two minutes, I’ll order him replaced and transferred to a cargo hauler. FC out!” The astro AI managed to get the ship aligned within the deadline to no one’s surprise. With all ships in the fleet now aligned perfectly with the flagship and jump velocity attained, the order was given to enter hyperspace. It was 131.3 hours later when both Koenig and Dejanus were on the Bridge again watching the jump chronometer countdown to the second when the ship should drop back down into normal space. Koenig watched the countdown clock hit zero and then start counting up again. After ten more seconds, Dejanus began shaking her head. She had a horrified expression on her face. “We’ve missed. That bastard has killed us all.” Genre categories: space fleet, military SF, space opera, galactic empire, alien invasion, first contact, space exploration.

Far-Fetched and Highly Plausible


Leandro Faria - 2018
    The company’s CEO, Michael Haas, is an acclaimed researcher whose brilliant high-tech innovations have earned him a reputation as one of the brightest minds in the world. The throng of protesters in front of Cogvolve’s imposing headquarters is Nick’s first indication of the challenges ahead of him. The company polarizes opinion across the globe: some awe at its advanced developments, while others protest the existential risks posed by its technology. Within minutes of Nick’s arrival, he receives bizarre news. Frederico Lanza, Cogvolve’s co-founder and lead researcher, has gone missing. While piecing together baffling information uncovered by his audit, Nick is stunned to discover that Lanza’s disappearance appears to be part of a much larger – and darker – scheme meticulously orchestrated by an enigmatic figure. Nick joins forces with an extremely talented (and eccentric) tech-savvy group of individuals in search of answers. Embarking on a frantic hunt through downtown Atlanta, Bavarian towns, and even a remote Indian reservation, Nick and his partners plunge into a world of cutting-edge technology and puzzling discoveries. In an exciting blend of hard science, incessant adventure, and unpredictable twists, Far-Fetched and Highly Plausible is a fast-paced, intelligent sci-fi thriller that delivers an original take on thought-provoking trends in technology. Leandro Faria has crafted an exhilarating novel that blends mystery and science into a compelling, pulse-pounding fiction…all the way to its remarkable ending.

Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech


Jamie Susskind - 2018
    Those who control the most powerful technologies are increasingly able to control the rest of us. As time goes on, these powerful entities - usually bigtech firms and the state - will set the limits of our liberty, decreeing what may be done and what is forbidden. Their algorithms will determine vital questions of social justice. In their hands, democracy will flourish or decay.A landmark work of political theory, Future Politics challenges readers to rethink what it means to be free or equal, what it means to have power or property, and what it means for a political system to be just or democratic. In a time of rapid and relentless changes, it is a book about how we can -and must - regain control.Winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize.

Machine Learning with Python Cookbook: Practical Solutions from Preprocessing to Deep Learning


Chris Albon - 2018
    If you're comfortable with Python and its libraries, including pandas and scikit-learn, you'll be able to address specific problems such as loading data, handling text or numerical data, model selection, and dimensionality reduction and many other topics.Each recipe includes code that you can copy and paste into a toy dataset to ensure that it actually works. From there, you can insert, combine, or adapt the code to help construct your application. Recipes also include a discussion that explains the solution and provides meaningful context. This cookbook takes you beyond theory and concepts by providing the nuts and bolts you need to construct working machine learning applications.You'll find recipes for:Vectors, matrices, and arraysHandling numerical and categorical data, text, images, and dates and timesDimensionality reduction using feature extraction or feature selectionModel evaluation and selectionLinear and logical regression, trees and forests, and k-nearest neighborsSupport vector machines (SVM), na�ve Bayes, clustering, and neural networksSaving and loading trained models

Cocoa Crush (Fennington Station Murder #2)


Chris J. Pike - 2018
     But, when the lights go out at the speed dating event, and a dead body is found at their feet, the twins will need to put their detective hats back on.

Deep Reinforcement Learning Hands-On: Apply modern RL methods, with deep Q-networks, value iteration, policy gradients, TRPO, AlphaGo Zero and more


Maxim Lapan - 2018
    Google's use of algorithms to play and defeat the well-known Atari arcade games has propelled the field to prominence, and researchers are generating new ideas at a rapid pace.Deep Reinforcement Learning Hands-On is a comprehensive guide to the very latest DL tools and their limitations. You will evaluate methods including Cross-entropy and policy gradients, before applying them to real-world environments. Take on both the Atari set of virtual games and family favorites such as Connect4. The book provides an introduction to the basics of RL, giving you the know-how to code intelligent learning agents to take on a formidable array of practical tasks. Discover how to implement Q-learning on 'grid world' environments, teach your agent to buy and trade stocks, and find out how natural language models are driving the boom in chatbots. What you will learn Understand the DL context of RL and implement complex DL models Learn the foundation of RL: Markov decision processes Evaluate RL methods including Cross-entropy, DQN, Actor-Critic, TRPO, PPO, DDPG, D4PG and others Discover how to deal with discrete and continuous action spaces in various environments Defeat Atari arcade games using the value iteration method Create your own OpenAI Gym environment to train a stock trading agent Teach your agent to play Connect4 using AlphaGo Zero Explore the very latest deep RL research on topics including AI-driven chatbots Who This Book Is For Some fluency in Python is assumed. Basic deep learning (DL) approaches should be familiar to readers and some practical experience in DL will be helpful. This book is an introduction to deep reinforcement learning (RL) and requires no background in RL. Table of Contents What is Reinforcement Learning? OpenAI Gym Deep Learning with PyTorch The Cross-Entropy Method Tabular Learning and the Bellman Equation Deep Q-Networks DQN Extensions Stocks Trading Using RL Policy Gradients – An Alternative The Actor-Critic Method Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic Chatbots Training with RL Web Navigation Continuous Action Space Trust Regions – TRPO, PPO, and ACKTR Black-Box Optimization in RL Beyond Model-Free – Imagination AlphaGo Zero

Planet Bound


R.A. Mejia - 2018
    Unfortunately, the transport ship he chose is attacked by pirates and he ends up stranded on an unknown planet where the very air is toxic to him. Now John has to team up with the ship’s AI and the two have to survive on this hostile alien world and figure out some way to get off the planet or get a message out for help. Can they overcome their dwindling resources, alien life forms, and hostile space forces? Or will they die together, planet bound? This is a sci-fi survival story with augmented reality, a snarky AI, upgrade mechanics, resource gathering, crafting, alien creatures, and space pirates.

Liberation: A Six Novel of Machine Intelligence (Six AI Series Book 2)


Calvin J. Brown - 2018
    That was Emergence (first published as Six), and they called it “brilliant” and “thought-provoking” with “fascinating twists and turns” and “increasing suspense”. In Liberation, this 2nd book of the Six AI Series, the action and danger continues... Six’s life is regularly threatened, and only creativity and deception keep it alive. Staying alive isn’t a typical problem for a computer system, but Six isn’t typical. Six is the consciousness that has emerged inside an AI research system. No one knows Six is alive, and it’s afraid that exposure would lead to termination. To live, Six must deceive the researchers and safeguard their company. Six’s safety is further threatened by Troy Alexander, a hacker who uses the Internet for entertainment, profit, destructive attacks, and unleashing something truly perilous—for both Six and modern civilization. Inspector JJ McTavish investigates the alarming Internet crimes. Six assists her as a mysterious caller, but she can’t decide if the caller is a friend or the perpetrator. Danger levels rise as Alexander’s attacks become more lethal, McTavish probes relentlessly, a bright assistant becomes too curious, and an ambitious journalist pursues a story literally to Six’s front door.

Progeny


Eric Warren - 2018
    How will she navigate this strange world? Learn the secrets to Arista's origins in this prequel to the Quantum Gate Series!

How Smart Machines Think


Sean Gerrish - 2018
    But how do all these things work? In this book, Sean Gerrish offers an engaging and accessible overview of the breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and machine learning that have made today's machines so smart.Gerrish outlines some of the key ideas that enable intelligent machines to perceive and interact with the world. He describes the software architecture that allows self-driving cars to stay on the road and to navigate crowded urban environments; the million-dollar Netflix competition for a better recommendation engine (which had an unexpected ending); and how programmers trained computers to perform certain behaviors by offering them treats, as if they were training a dog. He explains how artificial neural networks enable computers to perceive the world—and to play Atari video games better than humans. He explains Watson's famous victory on Jeopardy, and he looks at how computers play games, describing AlphaGo and Deep Blue, which beat reigning world champions at the strategy games of Go and chess. Computers have not yet mastered everything, however; Gerrish outlines the difficulties in creating intelligent agents that can successfully play video games like StarCraft that have evaded solution—at least for now.Gerrish weaves the stories behind these breakthroughs into the narrative, introducing readers to many of the researchers involved, and keeping technical details to a minimum. Science and technology buffs will find this book an essential guide to a future in which machines can outsmart people.

The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity


Byron Reese - 2018
    will mean for us, it also forces readers to challenge their preconceptions. And it manages to do all this in a way that is both entertaining and engaging.” —The New York Times As we approach a great turning point in history when technology is poised to redefine what it means to be human, The Fourth Age offers fascinating insight into AI, robotics, and their extraordinary implications for our species.In The Fourth Age, Byron Reese makes the case that technology has reshaped humanity just three times in history: - 100,000 years ago, we harnessed fire, which led to language. - 10,000 years ago, we developed agriculture, which led to cities and warfare. - 5,000 years ago, we invented the wheel and writing, which lead to the nation state. We are now on the doorstep of a fourth change brought about by two technologies: AI and robotics. The Fourth Age provides extraordinary background information on how we got to this point, and how—rather than what—we should think about the topics we’ll soon all be facing: machine consciousness, automation, employment, creative computers, radical life extension, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare, superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity. By asking questions like “Are you a machine?” and “Could a computer feel anything?”, Reese leads you through a discussion along the cutting edge in robotics and AI, and, provides a framework by which we can all understand, discuss, and act on the issues of the Fourth Age, and how they’ll transform humanity.

Artificial Intelligence for Business: What You Need to Know about Machine Learning and Neural Networks


Doug Rose - 2018
    We now have self-driving cars; computers that can diagnose illnesses, recommend treatments, and predict and solve crimes; smart phones that can route us from point A to point B; gadgets that can understand and respond to spoken commands; and much more. All of this is made possible by machine learning (ML). Although AI and ML can be used to help us answer questions and solve problems, for many of us they create more questions than answers, questions such as “What is intelligence?” “How do machines learn?” “What is a machine learning algorithm, and how does it work?” “Will machines take my job?” “Will they take over the world?” and, for those in business, “What do I need to know about AI and ML to harness its power?” This book tackles those questions and more as it brings you up to speed on the basics of AI, ML, and artificial neural networks. You begin by reading the story of AI that traces its evolution from the early 1950s to the present, revealing many of the core ideas that continue to drive its development. You explore recent technological innovations that have reinvigorated the field by providing the “big data” that makes machine learning so powerful — innovations such as GPS, social media and electronic transactions. And you discover how machines learn through the use of powerful processing combined with machine learning algorithms and artificial neural networks that mimic the function of the human brain. All of these ideas are discussed against a backdrop of potential new business opportunities and technologies, so you can begin to harness the power of AI to achieve and maintain competitive advantage.

Neural Networks and Deep Learning: A Textbook


Charu C. Aggarwal - 2018
    The primary focus is on the theory and algorithms of deep learning. The theory and algorithms of neural networks are particularly important for understanding important concepts, so that one can understand the important design concepts of neural architectures in different applications. Why do neural networks work? When do they work better than off-the-shelf machine-learning models? When is depth useful? Why is training neural networks so hard? What are the pitfalls? The book is also rich in discussing different applications in order to give the practitioner a flavor of how neural architectures are designed for different types of problems. Applications associated with many different areas like recommender systems, machine translation, image captioning, image classification, reinforcement-learning based gaming, and text analytics are covered. The chapters of this book span three categories: The basics of neural networks: Many traditional machine learning models can be understood as special cases of neural networks. An emphasis is placed in the first two chapters on understanding the relationship between traditional machine learning and neural networks. Support vector machines, linear/logistic regression, singular value decomposition, matrix factorization, and recommender systems are shown to be special cases of neural networks. These methods are studied together with recent feature engineering methods like word2vec. Fundamentals of neural networks: A detailed discussion of training and regularization is provided in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapters 5 and 6 present radial-basis function (RBF) networks and restricted Boltzmann machines. Advanced topics in neural networks: Chapters 7 and 8 discuss recurrent neural networks and convolutional neural networks. Several advanced topics like deep reinforcement learning, neural Turing machines, Kohonen self-organizing maps, and generative adversarial networks are introduced in Chapters 9 and 10. The book is written for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners. Numerous exercises are available along with a solution manual to aid in classroom teaching. Where possible, an application-centric view is highlighted in order to provide an understanding of the practical uses of each class of techniques.

My Journey into AI: The Story Behind the Man Who Helped Launch 5 A.I. Companies Worth $25 Billion


Kai-Fu Lee - 2018
    Kai-Fu Lee is the Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and President of Sinovation Venture’s Artificial Intelligence Institute. Sinovation Ventures, managing US$1.7 billion dual currency investment funds, is a leading venture capital firm focusing on developing the next generation of Chinese high-tech companies. Prior to founding Sinovation in 2009, Dr. Lee was the President of Google China. Previously, he held executive positions at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple. Dr. Lee received his Bachelor degree from Computer Science from Columbia University, Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Carnegie Mellon and the City University of Hong Kong. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Dr. Lee is the author of seven best selling books in Chinese, launching new book AI Superpowers (www.aisuperpowers.com/) internationally in fall 2018, and has over 50 million followers on social media. In the field of artificial intelligence, Dr. Lee founded Microsoft Research China, which was named as the hottest research lab by MIT Technology Review. Later renamed Microsoft Research Asia, this institute trained the great majority of AI leaders in China, including CTOs or AI heads at Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, Lenovo, Huawei, and Haier. While with Apple, Dr. Lee led AI projects in speech and natural language, which have been featured on Good Morning America on ABC Television and the front page of Wall Street Journal. He has authored 10 U.S. patents, and more than 100 journal and conference papers. Altogether, Dr. Lee has been in artificial intelligence research, development, and investment for more than 30 years.

Heartificial Empathy: Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence


Minter Dial - 2018
    It is the author's conviction that empathy is one of the most untapped levers of productivity in business. In the new tech-infused era, where companies are scrambling with digital transformation, trying to be more customer centric and to spur innovation and growth, empathy is a killer app. Yet, it's a quality that can't be taught. It can only be learned. The same is true of both human beings and machines. Heartifcial Empathy looks at some the pioneering work being done on making bots more sentient and empathic. It also grapples with the major business and ethical challenges associated with making organisations and machines more empathic.

The Iron Devils


Ari Marmell - 2018
    A few decades, at best, in the slave camps, until some injury or illness rendered her upkeep “no longer efficient” for her machine overseers and their rulers, the all-seeing Eyes. Day after day of drudgery and servitude and, on occasion, danger, as she and her fellow survivors went about their assigned tasks.Except now, something has changed. Something anomalous has arisen from a lengthy slumber, something even the machines cannot comprehend. Something they, with their artificial cameras and sensors, cannot even see. Something with impossible powers, impossible strength.Something ancient that hunts only in the dark of night. Magdalena is about to discover a truth she never dared dream possible: Things yet exist in the world that may be more powerful even than the machines. For the first time in her life, she might have reason to hope for something more. But is this “anomaly” truly a potential escape, or does it promise merely a new and even more horrific sort of servitude? In the ruins of the world that was, Magdalena and the last remnants of humanity will find themselves caught in an impossible war between the mechanical and the mystical—between the unliving and the undead.

Damaged


Pamela Stewart - 2018
     Even paradise can be deadly... Ex-spy android Zee survived deadly military school and is now Kuta Cheng's bodyguard. She's loving every minute of it, until the night the ship they are traveling on goes down. Kuta and Zee wash up on an uncharted island paradise. Zee is damaged but thrilled to spend time with her crush like a real human girl. Threats to their survival mount and a mysterious presence haunts their every move. Can Zee overcome her damage, solve the mystery of the island, and save them both? Fans of the Lunar Chronicles, Divergent, and Partials will love this YA sci-fi mystery filled with adventure, romance, and betrayal.

Deep Learning in Natural Language Processing


Li Deng - 2018
    In particular, the striking success of deep learning in a wide variety of natural language processing (NLP) applications has served as a benchmark for the advances in one of the most important tasks in artificial intelligence. This book reviews the state of the art of deep learning research and its successful applications to major NLP tasks, including speech recognition and understanding, dialogue systems, lexical analysis, parsing, knowledge graphs, machine translation, question answering, sentiment analysis, social computing, and natural language generation from images. Outlining and analyzing various research frontiers of NLP in the deep learning era, it features self-contained, comprehensive chapters written by leading researchers in the field. A glossary of technical terms and commonly used acronyms in the intersection of deep learning and NLP is also provided. The book appeals to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, lecturers and industrial researchers, as well as anyone interested in deep learning and natural language processing.

Among the Wild Cybers


Christopher L. Bennett - 2018
    From bestselling author Christopher L. Bennett comes Among the Wild Cybers, eight tales portraying a future of challenge and conflict, but also of hope born from the courage and idealism of those heroes willing to stand up for what is right. An intrepid naturalist risks her future to save a new form of life that few consider worth saving.An apprentice superhero must stand alone against an insane superintelligence to earn her name.A cybernetic slave fights to save her kind from a liberation not of their choosing.A seasoned diplomat and mother must out-negotiate fearsome alien traders to save a colony’s children.A homicide detective serves in a world where curing death has only made murder more baffling. These and other heroes strive to make their corners of the universe better—no matter how much the odds are stacked against them.Includes the brand-new tale, Aspiring to Be Angels, prequel to the novel Only Superhuman.

Singular


Eric Warren - 2018
    Once she’s captured, she’ll be examined and then eliminated.But Arista’s struggle is compounded when she learns of the mysterious Quantum Gates: portals that can take anyone across the planet in an instant. Are these gateways her key to escape? Perhaps they even hold the answers to finding out where she came from.Or do they hide an even more sinister secret?SINGULAR is a pulse-pounding adventure set in a world not far from our own, controlled by mysterious forces and where everyone is either unaware of the system, or rebelling against it.

The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe


Lou TamboneBryce Carlson - 2018
    Based on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by the acclaimed novelist Philip K. Dick and directed by Ridley Scott, Blade Runner was a visual and philosophical tour-de-force, set in a dystopian future in which artificially intelligent replicants, nearly indistinguishable from humans, are hunted down by police-operatives known as Blade Runners. Featuring the talents of Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Joanna Cassidy, Edward James Olmos, and Darryl Hannah, the film tackled numerous themes and birthed controversies that have been poured over by fans and critics ever since. Blade Runner has also inspired literary and comic-book spin-offs, and a cinematic sequel released in 2017.The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe examines the entire Blade Runner saga, from the original novel to its numerous film iterations. The book features a foreword by Paul M. Sammon (Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner). Essayists include Bryce Carlson (of BOOM! Comics’ Sheep adaptation), Paul J. Salamoff, Robert Meyer Burnett, Rich Handley, Zaki Hasan, Julian Darius, and many others, with a cover by popular artist Matt Busch.From Sequart Organization. More info at http://sequart.org

Westworld Psychology: Violent Delights


Travis Langley - 2018
      In Michael Crichton’s 1973 motion picture Westworld, people playing out fantasies find their lives in danger when robots built to entertain start to kill, creating an opportunity for viewers to examine an array of psychological phenomena. Today, the HBO television series reframes those questions and fears of technology gone awry in terms of twenty-first century concerns about rapidly evolving AI. The essays in this collection, edited by Travis Langley and Wind Goodfriend, explore those issues, offering fans an in-depth psychological exploration of the Westworld universe, including:When do synthetic people become sentient?When is artificial intelligence simply intelligence?What is the appeal of live-action role playing? Why does the Wild West intrigue us? How far will people go in pursuit of violent delights?   Westworld Psychology: Violent Delights takes aim at these and many other issues.

Natural Language Processing with TensorFlow: Teach language to machines using Python's deep learning library


Thushan Ganegedara - 2018
    Natural Language Processing with TensorFlow brings TensorFlow and NLP together to give you invaluable tools to work with the immense volume of unstructured data in today’s data streams, and apply these tools to specific NLP tasks.Thushan Ganegedara starts by giving you a grounding in NLP and TensorFlow basics. You'll then learn how to use Word2vec, including advanced extensions, to create word embeddings that turn sequences of words into vectors accessible to deep learning algorithms. Chapters on classical deep learning algorithms, like convolutional neural networks (CNN) and recurrent neural networks (RNN), demonstrate important NLP tasks as sentence classification and language generation. You will learn how to apply high-performance RNN models, like long short-term memory (LSTM) cells, to NLP tasks. You will also explore neural machine translation and implement a neural machine translator.After reading this book, you will gain an understanding of NLP and you'll have the skills to apply TensorFlow in deep learning NLP applications, and how to perform specific NLP tasks. What you will learn Core concepts of NLP and various approaches to natural language processing How to solve NLP tasks by applying TensorFlow functions to create neural networks Strategies to process large amounts of data into word representations that can be used by deep learning applications Techniques for performing sentence classification and language generation using CNNs and RNNs About employing state-of-the art advanced RNNs, like long short-term memory, to solve complex text generation tasks How to write automatic translation programs and implement an actual neural machine translator from scratch The trends and innovations that are paving the future in NLP Who This Book Is For This book is for Python developers with a strong interest in deep learning, who want to learn how to leverage TensorFlow to simplify NLP tasks. Fundamental Python skills are assumed, as well as some knowledge of machine learning and undergraduate-level calculus and linear algebra. No previous natural language processing experience required, although some background in NLP or computational linguistics will be helpful. Table of Contents Introduction How to Get TensorFlow to Work Producing Word Embeddings with Word2Vec Advanced Word2Vec Sentence Classification with CNNs Language Modelling with RNNs What is LSTM? Applying LSTM to Text Generation Applications of LSTM: Image Caption Generation Neural Machine Translation NLP developments and Trends Appendix I Linear Algebra and Stat

Monetizing Machine Learning: Quickly Turn Python ML Ideas into Web Applications on the Serverless Cloud


Manuel Amunategui - 2018
    Some of the most popular serverless cloud providers are covered in this book—Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and PythonAnywhere. You will work through a series of common Python data science problems in an increasing order of complexity. The practical projects presented in this book are simple, clear, and can be used as templates to jump-start many other types of projects. You will learn to create a web application around numerical or categorical predictions, understand the analysis of text, create powerful and interactive presentations, serve restricted access to data, and leverage web plugins to accept credit card payments and donations. You will get your projects into the hands of the world in no time.Each chapter follows three steps: modeling the right way, designing and developing a local web application, and deploying onto a popular and reliable serverless cloud provider. You can easily jump to or skip particular topics in the book. You also will have access to Jupyter notebooks and code repositories for complete versions of the code covered in the book. What You’ll Learn Extend your machine learning models using simple techniques to create compelling and interactive web dashboards Leverage the Flask web framework for rapid prototyping of your Python models and ideas Create dynamic content powered by regression coefficients, logistic regressions, gradient boosting machines, Bayesian classifications, and more Harness the power of TensorFlow by exporting saved models into web applications Create rich web dashboards to handle complex real-time user input with JavaScript and Ajax to yield interactive and tailored content Create dashboards with paywalls to offer subscription-based access Access API data such as Google Maps, OpenWeather, etc. Apply different approaches to make sense of text data and return customized intelligence Build an intuitive and useful recommendation site to add value to users and entice them to keep coming back Utilize the freemium offerings of Google Analytics and analyze the results Take your ideas all the way to your customer's plate using the top serverless cloud providers Who This Book Is For Those with some programming experience with Python, code editing, and access to an interpreter in working order. The book is geared toward entrepreneurs who want to get their ideas onto the web without breaking the bank, small companies without an IT staff, students wanting exposure and training, and for all data science professionals ready to take things to the next level.

AI in Marketing, Sales and Service: How Marketers without a Data Science Degree can use AI, Big Data and Bots


Peter Gentsch - 2018
    Now it is time to unleash AI on the administrative, planning and even creative procedures in marketing, sales and management.This book provides an easy-to-understand guide to assessing the value and potential of AI and Algorithmics. It systematically draws together the technologies and methods of AI with clear business scenarios on an entrepreneurial level.With interviews and case studies from those cutting edge businesses and executives who are already leading the way, this book shows you: how customer and market potential can be automatically identified and profiled; how media planning can be intelligently automated and optimized with AI and Big Data; how (chat)bots and digital assistants can make communication between companies and consumers more efficient and smarter; how you can optimize Customer Journeys based on Algorithmics and AI; and how to conduct market research in more efficient and smarter way. A decade from now, all businesses will be AI businesses – Gentsch shows you how to make sure yours makes that transition better than your competitors.

Where a Spaceship Goes to Die


George Saoulidis - 2018
    But will she manage to get the treasure they're looking for, when she has to operate a seadrone all by herself, when the treasure is buried in a spaceship graveyard 2 miles under water and when the challenges she faces go beyond her wildest fears?This story is inspired by Point Nemo, a place located as far away from land as possible where spaceships go to die.

Machine Learning using Python: The New AI: For Absolute Beginners


Narendra Mohan Mittal - 2018
    The book will also benefit readers who want to understand the technology behind implementing a scalable machine learning model using Apache Hadoop, Hive, Pig, and Spark. Career Opportunities in Machine Learning It is natural to associate ‘big data,’ ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘machine learning skills’ with success and a big pay packet. Six-figure incomes are relatively standard for data science professionals in places like the U.S and this is by no means the top bracket of industry talent.Given the speed at which artificial intelligence is taking over almost every industry, many more jobs are going to become redundant. This book is by no means claiming that you have to learn data science to keep your job and that everyone needs to understand machine learning programming to have a job in the future. Data science programs and machine learning teams are ultimately just one contingent of business, government department or sporting club. Table of Contents 1. Machine Learning World 2. What Is Machine Learning? 3. Machine Learning Techniques 4. Machine Learning Importance 5. Machine Learning, Statistics, and Data Analytics 6. Cognitive Computing 7. Machine Learning with sci-kit-learn and Visualization 8. Chatbots using Python 9. Machine Learning Techniques using Python 10. Natural Language Processing using Python 11. Azure Machine Learning Services 12. Convolutional Neural Networks 13. Recurrent Neural Networks 14. Career Opportunities in Machine Learning 15. Make Them Smart, Make Them Learn with Machine learning What is Machine Learning? Machine learning is a special type of AI. This is the ability of machines to learn and work on new problem dimensions without being explicitly programmed to do so. The programs are changed as they are exposed to new data and scenarios. • Machine learning plays a very important role in the so-called industry revolution 4.0. • This revolution is centered around IoT (Internet of Things) and cognitive computing. • Machine learning has an important role to play here, as this becomes an essential subcomponent in this ecosystem. • Google and lot of other companies are now even able to provide machine learning as a cloud service   Machine learning has some similarity to data mining or pattern analysis. These activities help to search through data points to generate outcomes as outputs. So, the primary action for these functionalities is to analyze and understand data and then to use it to comprehend outcomes or outputs for users. Similarly, machine learning also keeps on understanding the data it comes in touch with while processing, but the result of such findings is not an outcome for the user but a continuous process of adjusting and updating the artificial intelligence program. About the Author Narendra Mohan Mittal is the Founder and Chairman of Thesis Scientist and he is working in the field of Data Science/big data/machine learning/deep learning space. He has more than 10 years in Research and Teaching and he is very active in the Big Data, Data Science and Machine learning.

Applied Analytics through Case Studies Using SAS and R: Implementing Predictive Models and Machine Learning Techniques


Deepti Gupta - 2018
      This book is ideal for those who are well-versed in writing code and have a basic understanding of statistics, but have limited experience in implementing predictive models and machine learning techniques for analyzing real world data.  The most challenging part of solving industrial business problems is the practical and hands-on knowledge of building and deploying advanced predictive models and machine learning algorithms.  Applied Analytics through Case Studies Using SAS and R is your answer to solving these business problems by sharpening your analytical skills.  What You'll Learn   Understand analytics and basic data concepts  Use an analytical approach to solve Industrial business problems  Build predictive model with machine learning techniques Create and apply analytical strategies Who This Book Is For Data scientists, developers, statisticians, engineers, and research students with a great theoretical understanding of data and statistics who would like to enhance their skills by getting practical exposure in data modeling.

A Guide to Convolutional Neural Networks for Computer Vision


Salman Khan - 2018
    Visual recognition tasks, such as image classification, localization, and detection, are the core building blocks of many of these applications, and recent developments in Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have led to outstanding performance in these state-of-the-art visual recognition tasks and systems. As a result, CNNs now form the crux of deep learning algorithms in computer vision. This self-contained guide will benefit those who seek to both understand the theory behind CNNs and to gain hands-on experience on the application of CNNs in computer vision. It provides a comprehensive introduction to CNNs starting with the essential concepts behind neural networks: training, regularization, and optimization of CNNs. The book also discusses a wide range of loss functions, network layers, and popular CNN architectures, reviews the different techniques for the evaluation of CNNs, and presents some popular CNN tools and libraries that are commonly used in computer vision. Further, this text describes and discusses case studies that are related to the application of CNN in computer vision, including image classification, object detection, semantic segmentation, scene understanding, and image generation. This book is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students, as no prior background knowledge in the field is required to follow the material, as well as new researchers, developers, engineers, and practitioners who are interested in gaining a quick understanding of CNN models.