Fun and Inquiry-Based Learning Yoku Wakaru Jinko Chino (Intelligible Artificial Intelligence - What can it do? How will society change?)

This book presents an outline on artificial intelligence and deep learning using several figures and diagrams such that even children can understand. In Japan, although artificial intelligence has gained widespread attention in the past several years, the overall understanding of technical content is still not high. In some cases, media and government ministries also report inaccurately or hold imprecise discussions without understanding the technical details. This book is written in an easy-to-understand manner and is based on my previous book, "Will artificial intelligence exceed human performance? What lies ahead in deep learning." The history, technology, and applications of artificial intelligence is presented in this book in an easy way with technically correct explanations and it also unravels common misconceptions.

This book consists of three parts. Part 1 explains how artificial intelligence is still incomplete in the context of how humans think, difference from robots, how it is used in daily life and at various levels in artificial intelligence, history of humankind with technological evolution and positioning of artificial intelligence therein. Part 2 discusses the history of artificial intelligence thus far and introduces the details of its booming period, prominent people working in the field of artificial intelligence, and how computers were not well developed until deep learning came about.

Part 3 explains how deep learning has opened up a new path for artificial intelligence, neural networks, feature learning, convolutional neural network (CNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN), and future technological advances. This book has covered specialized topics to the extent that one may not even believe that this is intended for children. Lastly, futuristic society and technologies such as translation and automated driving are also discussed.

We (researchers), as children, read pictorial books, science books, science fiction and so on with keen interest, and had big dreams. If today's children, who will lead the future, know what artificial intelligence is, how it is related to things around us, and the history of this field, it may have a positive impact on their learning process in school. My desire as an editorial supervisor is to make as many people as possible have a correct understanding of the technology and hope that human resources who can develop the industry and academics are born in the future.

 

(Written by MATSUO Yutaka, Professor, School of Engineering / 2019)