Nigel Toon

Few books are more timely than How AI Thinks, an accessible guide that walks the reader through the technology&rsquo;s developmental history right back to the days before the computer... This is a fascinating read.

I believe that AI is going to have a massive impact on everyone’s lives; it’s such a hugely important topic that we can’t just leave it to technologists and governments to think about. Business people, teachers, students and parents - everyone needs to learn more about it. In How AI Thinks, Nigel Toon provides us with an accessible and sensible read that helps demystify AI and lets us all understand more about this incredibly powerful tool.

Nigel Toon is not only a visionary leader in the field of artificial intelligence, but also a captivating storyteller who takes us on a journey through his own fascinating history and the evolution of our young industry. He has a gift for explaining complex concepts in simple terms, making this book accessible and engaging for anyone interested in AI. He also offers a prescriptive and optimistic view of the future of AI, showing how it can transform our lives and society for the better. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the past, present and future of artificial intelligence.

Marc Tremblay PhD, Distinguished Engineer

An insightful, informative, inspiring book which takes the reader on a journey of discovery, it ultimately paints a hopeful and reasoned vision of how humanity can move on from a position of fear and trepidation, and embrace AI, deriving profound benefit from all it makes possible. Nigel has a skill in taking highly technical content and making AI not just comprehensible, but also engaging.

Professor Evelyn Welch, Vice-Chancellor and President

As a business leader, it was great to have all the strands that have created AI pulled together. Nigel Toon synthesizes everything so clearly, simply and in such an inspiring way. How AI Thinks delivers the perspective that leaders and politicians need so that they can regulate AI well.

Through elegant storytelling, Nigel makes the understanding of AI and its possibilities accessible to all despite its complexities. He brings to life the important notion that AI is a tool, a uniquely powerful one, but one that has limitations and is under our control if we make time to learn how it works and thinks. An indispensable book for anyone who wants to play an active role in understanding and using the opportunities of AI to make our world and lives better.

This is both a brilliant history of the technologies that have built the modern world, as well as a guide to how AI can transform the future of health, education and climate. It paints a profound picture of the opportunities of AI to amplify human intelligence and is clear-sighted about how to govern the risks of the most powerful tool we have ever had.

Benedict Macon-Cooney, Chief Policy Strategist

A sparky new book on artificial intelligence... How AI Thinks provides a brisk and well-grounded introduction to how AI has evolved since the term was first coined in 1955, how it is used today and how it may (we hope) be controlled.

How we built it, how it can help us, and how we can control it

We are used to thinking of computers as being a step up from calculators - very good at storing information, and maybe even at playing a logical game like chess. But up to now they haven't been able to think in ways that are intuitive, or respond to questions as a human might. All that has changed, dramatically, in the past few years. 
 
Our search engines are becoming answer engines. Artificial intelligence is already revolutionising sectors from education to healthcare to the creative arts. But how does an AI understand sentiment or context? How does it play and win games that have an almost infinite number of moves? And how can we work with AI to produce insights and innovations that are beyond human capacity, from writing code in an instant to unfolding the elaborate 3D puzzles of proteins? 
 
We stand at the brink of a historic change that will disrupt society and at the same time create enormous opportunities for those who understand how AI thinks. Nigel Toon shows how we train AI to train itself, so that it can paint images that have never existed before or converse in any language. In doing so he reveals the strange and fascinating ways that humans think, too, as we learn how to live in a world shared by machine intelligences of our own creation.

Nigel Toon

Praise for How AI Thinks

Few books are more timely than How AI Thinks, an accessible guide that walks the reader through the technology’s developmental history right back to the days before the computer... This is a f ...

I believe that AI is going to have a massive impact on everyone’s lives; it’s such a hugely important topic that we can’t just leave it to technologists and governments to think about. Business people, teachers, ...

Nigel Toon is not only a visionary leader in the field of artificial intelligence, but also a captivating storyteller who takes us on a journey through his own fascinating history and the evolution of our you ...

Few books are more timely than How AI Thinks, an accessible guide that walks the reader through the technology’s developmental history right back to the days before the computer... This is a f ...

I believe that AI is going to have a massive impact on everyone’s lives; it’s such a hugely important topic that we can’t just leave it to technologists and governments to think about. Business people, teachers, ...

Nigel Toon is not only a visionary leader in the field of artificial intelligence, but also a captivating storyteller who takes us on a journey through his own fascinating history and the evolution of our you ...

Few books are more timely than How AI Thinks, an accessible guide that walks the reader through the technology’s developmental history right back to the days before the computer... This is a f ...

I believe that AI is going to have a massive impact on everyone’s lives; it’s such a hugely important topic that we can’t just leave it to technologists and governments to think about. Business people, teachers, ...

Nigel Toon is not only a visionary leader in the field of artificial intelligence, but also a captivating storyteller who takes us on a journey through his own fascinating history and the evolution of our you ...

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter