AI Books Recommended by Bill Gates: A Guide for AI Enthusiasts
The Books that shaped Bill's view on AI and Intelligence of Machines.
While doing my research for the 3-post series on Bill Gates's 7-page-long letter on AI, he mentions some AI-related books that he read to form his understanding of AI. He listed three books on the 6th page of the blog.
While scrutinising his famous letter, I did mention the books in the above post, but I still thought to make a separate post about these books for my readers. Now even if you are not a big Bill Gates admirer, these AI books recommended by him are must-reads for anyone who wants to learn and study AI.
To put it in perspective, I would say if you are interested in getting started and learning about artificial intelligence, or the way thinking works (philosophically or otherwise) you might want to check out these books - recommended by Bill Gates. Actually not only Gates, but other prominent figures like Elon Musk, Stephen Hawkings, WSJ and many others had great reviews on these books. All of them are best sellers - so it is credible enough in my opinion.
Regardless of whether you are a beginner or an expert in AI, you will find something to inspire and ponder upon.
I must admit, I don’t usually do book reviews, but after looking at the books on the internet (and reading them myself), I thought it would be valuable to share with the readers. Plus, the reviews were also great.
Therefore I thought to share the books here as well along with their brief descriptions and links.
Note: The following links are NOT affiliate links :)
Superintelligence
Author: Nick Bostrom
Publisher: Oxford University Press; Reprint edition (14 April 2016)
Ratings on Amazon: 4.5 / 5
Description: This seminal book injects the topic of superintelligence into the academic and popular mainstream. What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? In a tour de force of analytic thinking, Bostrom lays a foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life.
Life 3.0
Author: Max Tegmark
Publisher: Knopf (29 August 2017)
Ratings on Amazon: 4.5 / 5
Description: How will Artificial Intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology—and there’s nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who’s helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial.
A Thousand Brains
Author: Jeff Hawkins
Publisher: Basic Books (18 March 2021)
Ratings on Amazon: 4.5 / 5
Description: In A Thousand Brains, Hawkins takes a radically new approach to the brain, with stunning implications. Hawkins' proposal, called the Thousand Brains Theory of Intelligence, is that your brain is organized into thousands upon thousands of individually computing units, called cortical columns. These columns all process information from the outside world in the same way, and each builds a complete model of the world. With this powerful new framework, Hawkins is able to reassess some of neuroscience's most stubborn problems, like why pain needs to be painful to be useful, how we can understand that our perspective of a thing changes as we move around it, and why we might be conscious but individual pieces of our body aren't.
End Notes
Hope you liked this post.
Do let me know if there are any other books you want to suggest in addition to the one listed above.
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