Book Review
Are We on the Cusp of the Artificial Intelligence Revolution?
Review of Dr Yildiz’s recent AI book
I was a beta reader for the early release of the book titled “On the Cusp of the Artificial Intelligence Revolution: How to be friends with artificial intelligence and look at it from a fresh perspective”.
Coming from a technology, business, and leadership background, the book’s title attracted my attention. When Dr Yildiz approached me about whether I’d be interested in being a beta reader for the book’s early release, I accepted the offer with no hesitation.
Previously I read several books, academic papers, and articles of Dr Yildiz on technology topics, particularly in enterprise and business architecture frameworks. While he uses formal language in his scientific papers, his technical books use straightforward language.
On one occasion, I was curious how he simplified such complex topics and presented them in very easy vernacular. One of his approaches was writing his books in a conversational tone as if he talked to his audience. He also uses Hemingway Editor to transform his complex content to grade seven or lower.
Even though artificial intelligence is a complex topic covering many aspects of computer science, information technology, and engineering, the author made the content easy to understand.
The first chapter emphasizes the importance of Artificial Intelligence, showing AI as a life-changing technology, covering robotics, big data analytics, machine learning, neural networks, deep learning, biotechnology, genetics, the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and more.
A combination and integration of these emerging technologies help humanity to create robots that sometimes outsmart human beings. We witnessed this on many occasions. For example, in 2011, IBM Watson challenged Ken Jennings, the 74-time winner of the popular trivia quiz Jeopardy, and Brad Rutter, a 20-time champion.
This achievement of AI was over a decade ago. If we look further back, who forgets the Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov in New York City in 1997? “Deep Blue’s win was seen as symbolically significant, a sign that artificial intelligence was catching up to human intelligence and could defeat one of humanity’s great intellectual champions,” said Washington Examiner in an article titled “Be Afraid”.
These two simple yet interesting events are evidences for the AI revolution that the author refers in this book. Dr Yildiz allocated a chapter on Cognitive Computing introducing cognitive applications that can observe, lеаrn, аdарt, аnd perform tedious tasks faster thаn humаnѕ beings. But sometimes AI can produce undesirable outcomes and even be ridiculous.
Dedicating four decades of his life to studying and working in the information technology field with a substantial focus on AI, the author provided a historical review of the AI literature highlighting key achievements. I am amazed by digital scent technologies and finding that AI can now smell.
He mentioned Jоhn McCarthy, known as the father of AI and his collaborators Mаrvіn Mіnѕkу, Nаthаnіеl Rосhеѕtеr, and Claude Shannon. They developed the Dаrtmоuth Wоrkѕhор in1956 which is considered the year when AI was born.
The purpose is to introduce the benefits of AI and create a new point of view of AI from a fresh perspective. He reflects on insights from the industry. He invites the readers to become friends with AI by informing the readers of vital knowledge.
He also introduces the key points reflecting on the true nature of AI. Rather than a replacement of human intelligence and virtues, he recommends seeing AI as a new tool to extend and enhance the capabilities of human beings.
The book covers a broad scope. The audience is business people, educators, learners, healthcare professionals, and individuals interested in artificial intelligence. He believes that the way we do business, how we learn, how we deal with our health will dramatically change.
The book points out that AI has a significant impact on our business and economies, even though it is still at the nascent stage. The author proposes more breakthrough innovations and inventions.
The book emphasizes that “the more significant part of the iceberg is to deal with ethical concerns, personal anxiety, and societal fear”. The author believes that our resistance may delay the benefits of getting from it if we fear AI.
We know that every technological and scientific breakthrough come with new ethical, philosophical, cultural, and many more societal implications. The book suggests that many ethical problems require resolutions; however, they should not discourage us from exploring common sense and collaborative effort.
There is a specific topic covering essential aspects of AI components within that context. Without delving into nitty-gritty technical details, the author chooses to give a high-level understanding of vital concepts and essential elements of AI systems in simple language
His goal is to inform the audience based on his knowledge and experience. He looks at AI from an optimistic angle. He believes that AI can bring substantial benefits to humanity if we appropriately design and integrate it for our needs.
The book covers crucial points such as public safety and security. Pointing out the term autonomous may scare the public, I understand that autonomous does not mean conscious. It means that humans can give autonomy to AI machines with specific boundaries.
The book has a specific chapter covering law, regulations, governance, and ethics. With a focus on the crucial role of legal professionals, the chapter points out that we cannot develop AI systems in isolation. Instead, we need to work closely and collaboratively.
As he did in his previous technical and architectural work, Dr Yildiz gives high importance to open-source communities for developing technological solutions. Therefore, the book has a chapter introducing key open-source AI projects, tools, and resources. Dr Yildiz is a certified Distinguished Enterprise Architect by the Open Group.
Another critical point in this book is the focus on global collaboration. In every book that I read from Dr Yildiz, we need to refrain from silos and be more transparent. In this book, too, he says AI is a global phenomenon. He asserts that AI is not just one nation’s work anymore because solutions can affect every human being. Therefore, he suggests that AI systems must be universal, aiming to enhance the capabilities of all human beings with synergy.
In addition to learning new concepts and gaining a historical background of AI, my takeaway from this book, is the importance of standardization, automation, and transparency for creating AI solutions collaboratively.
As a beta reader, I thoroughly enjoy reading this new book and found it valuable. I also noticed that another beta reader provided a review of this book from a different angle on ILLUMINATION-Curated.
Dr Yildiz shares the book on Medium, publishing daily chapters on ILLUMINATION Book Chapters for his followers. Here is the link to the latest chapter covering machine learning.
As a senior editor of his publication ILLUMINATION-Curated, I follow the recent analysis of Dr Yildiz for technological developments in various regions of the United States. He covers AI and other emerging technology progress in different states and cities, reflecting insights from business and economic development perspectives. I compiled his recent articles in a story titled “Technology & Business Articles Related to the States of North America” for easy access.
