As artificial intelligence becomes more important in today's increasingly digitised world, here are the best AI books. Will artificial intelligence be the doom or the saviour of mankind? Should we be worried by the rise of robotics, or welcome androids with open arms?
Our interview on artificial intelligence with Calum Chace, author of several books on the subject, is a great introduction to this topical issue.
Once you're up to speed on the practical aspects of the field, as well as its promises and pitfalls, you can dig deeper into the ethical questions of AI in our interview with Oxford philosopher Paula Boddington.
To understand if, how and when machines will catch up to humans, you can learn more about robotics books with novelist and sci-fi fan Daniel Wilson, or the intelligence of Watson and other AIs or whether eternal life is possible via a computer. The possibilities are endless.
Editor's note: If you're looking for a book on artificial intelligence for the general reader, Stuart Russell, a professor at Berkeley and the author (along with Peter Norvig) of the top-ranked computer science/AI textbook has written one. It's called Human Compatible.
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1
Heartificial Intelligence: Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines
by John Havens -
2
The Technological Singularity
by Murray Shanahan -
3
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
by Cathy O'Neil -
4
Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong
by Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen -
5
2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C Clarke
The best books on Ethics for Artificial Intelligence, recommended by Paula Boddington
The best books on Ethics for Artificial Intelligence, recommended by Paula Boddington
Advances in artificial intelligence pose a myriad of ethical questions, but the most incisive thinking on this subject says more about humans than it does about machines, says Paula Boddington, Oxford academic and author of Towards a Code of Ethics for Artificial Intelligence.
The best books on Existential Risks, recommended by The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
In the rapidly-emerging field of existential risks, researchers study the mitigation of threats that could lead to human extinction or civilisational collapse. We met with four researchers from The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, to discuss their recommendations of the best books to get a grasp of this dense subject.
The best books on Transhumanism, recommended by Mark O'Connell
The journalist and author Mark O’Connell explored the nature of transhumanism—the belief that technology will help us evolve beyond our current physical and mental limitations—in his award-winning book To Be A Machine. Here he selects five key books that speak directly to the movement.
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1
Statistical Evidence: A Likelihood Paradigm
by Richard Royall -
2
Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics
by Nathan Yau -
3
Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals
by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic -
4
An Introduction to Statistical Learning: with Applications in R
by Daniela Witten, Gareth James, Robert Tibshirani & Trevor Hastie -
5
Design Thinking: Understanding How Designers Think and Work
by Nigel Cross
The best books on Data Science, recommended by Roger D. Peng
The best books on Data Science, recommended by Roger D. Peng
From complex techniques only used by academic statisticians, data science has risen to extreme popularity in only a few years. Roger D. Peng, Professor of Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University and founder of one of the largest data science online courses, helps us understand this discipline and recommends the five best books to delve into it.
