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5 Best non-fiction books on Artificial Intelligence
August 05, 2025 | Author: Maria Lin
Here is may list of 5 most interesting books about AI for those who want to understand it:
1. On Intelligence
The book intertwines the biography of the author (Jeff Hawkins) and his theory about the work of the cerebral cortex. And perhaps in his theory, two central ideas can be distinguished. The first is that the brain works with sequential patterns. The perception of any object, even if you think that you see the object as a whole and at once - is in fact a sequential chain of signals sent from the eye to the brain which also sequentially processes it. The second idea is that the main function of the brain - Prediction (or, more precisely, the prediction of each next signal in a sequential pattern). According to Hawkins, the cerebral cortex is the organ of predictions. And if we want to understand what intelligence is, what creativity is, how the brain works and how to build intelligent machines, we must understand the nature of these predictions and how the cortex makes them. Jeff also tried to explain this prediction process basing on multilayer microcolumns of the cortex.
2. Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
The author of this book, James Barrat, is asking a question: What would strong AI do when it's finally created. The author believes that once it become self-aware, it would work hard to achieve the goals it was programmed to achieve. It would want access to resources: energy and money. It would want to improve itself to increase its chances of achieving the goals. And it would NOT WANT to be turned off or destroyed, as this would make it impossible to achieve its goals. Therefore, it would try to escape from the secure facility where it's kept to gain greater access to resources that would help it protect itself and develop. Imagine that its creators are trying to change its code. Would a superintelligence allow someone to get into its “brain”? Unlikely, unless it was absolutely certain that this would make it better, faster, smarter — closer to achieving its goals. If friendliness towards humans isn't built in, the only way it would be is if the AI itself wanted it. And that's unlikely.
3. How to Create a Mind
In this book, Ray Kurzweil presents his theory of how the brain works and how this model can be used to create strong AI. The theory, called PRTM (Pattern Recognition Theory of Mind), describes the basic algorithm of the neocortex that performs recursive hierarchical thinking. The main goal of the project to understand, model and simulate the human brain is reverse-engineering the neocortex of the brain - a sophisticated structure created by biological evolution. The author writes that there are details in this cortical mechanism that we do not yet fully understand, but we know enough about the functions it must perform to create algorithms that can solve the same tasks. By beginning to understand the neocortex, we can now greatly enhance its capabilities, just as the world of aviation greatly enhanced the capabilities of Bernoulli's principle. The mechanism of reasoning is perhaps the most important information in the world, as it is able to represent all knowledge and skills, as well as create new knowledge. After all, it is neocortex that was responsible for every novel, every song, every painting, every scientific discovery and many other products of human thought.
4. Applied Artificial Intelligence: A Handbook For Business Leaders
This book is a quick read (a few hours max) for CEOs who have heard of AI but don't really understand how it's used to solve various business problems. The book gives you the basics and defines some terms (Machine Learning, Data Science, AGI...), but it's mostly based on examples from big companies like Uber, Michaelangelo, Google, etc., so for smaller companies, these examples aren't really practical. The MLaaS section (about cloud-based AI services) and the comments are probably the most valuable parts of the book. Too much attention is paid to creating an AI culture in the company, ethical issues and attracting talent who are well versed in AI technologies. Also, be prepared for frequent links to the book's website, which resemble advertising, but that's why the book is free (or at a low price on Amazon).
5. Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins
Of course, the most interesting thing about this book (besides the chess tactics, which are interesting for chess players) is what Garry Kasparov thinks about the replacement of human labor by AI. After all, he was the first victim of this process. Here's what he thinks: We read headlines every day about how machines are replacing lawyers, bankers, doctors and other "white collar" workers. Every profession will eventually feel this pressure and it is inevitable. The transfer of labor from people to our inventions is nothing less than the history of civilization. And we can see this change either as a robotic hand squeezing our necks or as a hand that can lift us higher than we can climb ourselves. People whose jobs are threatened by AI-automation fear that the current wave of technology will put them out of business, but they must ride this wave that will provide economic growth and create new jobs.Tr aining and retraining the workforce to adapt to change is far more effective than trying to keep that workforce in some kind of “Luddite bubble.”
See also: Top 10 eBook Organizers
1. On Intelligence
The book intertwines the biography of the author (Jeff Hawkins) and his theory about the work of the cerebral cortex. And perhaps in his theory, two central ideas can be distinguished. The first is that the brain works with sequential patterns. The perception of any object, even if you think that you see the object as a whole and at once - is in fact a sequential chain of signals sent from the eye to the brain which also sequentially processes it. The second idea is that the main function of the brain - Prediction (or, more precisely, the prediction of each next signal in a sequential pattern). According to Hawkins, the cerebral cortex is the organ of predictions. And if we want to understand what intelligence is, what creativity is, how the brain works and how to build intelligent machines, we must understand the nature of these predictions and how the cortex makes them. Jeff also tried to explain this prediction process basing on multilayer microcolumns of the cortex.
2. Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
The author of this book, James Barrat, is asking a question: What would strong AI do when it's finally created. The author believes that once it become self-aware, it would work hard to achieve the goals it was programmed to achieve. It would want access to resources: energy and money. It would want to improve itself to increase its chances of achieving the goals. And it would NOT WANT to be turned off or destroyed, as this would make it impossible to achieve its goals. Therefore, it would try to escape from the secure facility where it's kept to gain greater access to resources that would help it protect itself and develop. Imagine that its creators are trying to change its code. Would a superintelligence allow someone to get into its “brain”? Unlikely, unless it was absolutely certain that this would make it better, faster, smarter — closer to achieving its goals. If friendliness towards humans isn't built in, the only way it would be is if the AI itself wanted it. And that's unlikely.
3. How to Create a Mind
In this book, Ray Kurzweil presents his theory of how the brain works and how this model can be used to create strong AI. The theory, called PRTM (Pattern Recognition Theory of Mind), describes the basic algorithm of the neocortex that performs recursive hierarchical thinking. The main goal of the project to understand, model and simulate the human brain is reverse-engineering the neocortex of the brain - a sophisticated structure created by biological evolution. The author writes that there are details in this cortical mechanism that we do not yet fully understand, but we know enough about the functions it must perform to create algorithms that can solve the same tasks. By beginning to understand the neocortex, we can now greatly enhance its capabilities, just as the world of aviation greatly enhanced the capabilities of Bernoulli's principle. The mechanism of reasoning is perhaps the most important information in the world, as it is able to represent all knowledge and skills, as well as create new knowledge. After all, it is neocortex that was responsible for every novel, every song, every painting, every scientific discovery and many other products of human thought.
4. Applied Artificial Intelligence: A Handbook For Business Leaders
This book is a quick read (a few hours max) for CEOs who have heard of AI but don't really understand how it's used to solve various business problems. The book gives you the basics and defines some terms (Machine Learning, Data Science, AGI...), but it's mostly based on examples from big companies like Uber, Michaelangelo, Google, etc., so for smaller companies, these examples aren't really practical. The MLaaS section (about cloud-based AI services) and the comments are probably the most valuable parts of the book. Too much attention is paid to creating an AI culture in the company, ethical issues and attracting talent who are well versed in AI technologies. Also, be prepared for frequent links to the book's website, which resemble advertising, but that's why the book is free (or at a low price on Amazon).
5. Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins
Of course, the most interesting thing about this book (besides the chess tactics, which are interesting for chess players) is what Garry Kasparov thinks about the replacement of human labor by AI. After all, he was the first victim of this process. Here's what he thinks: We read headlines every day about how machines are replacing lawyers, bankers, doctors and other "white collar" workers. Every profession will eventually feel this pressure and it is inevitable. The transfer of labor from people to our inventions is nothing less than the history of civilization. And we can see this change either as a robotic hand squeezing our necks or as a hand that can lift us higher than we can climb ourselves. People whose jobs are threatened by AI-automation fear that the current wave of technology will put them out of business, but they must ride this wave that will provide economic growth and create new jobs.Tr aining and retraining the workforce to adapt to change is far more effective than trying to keep that workforce in some kind of “Luddite bubble.”
See also: Top 10 eBook Organizers
