The Limits of AI: : The True Role Of Computers In Our Future

The Limits of AI: The True Role Of Computers In Our Future examines the impact of the accelerating growth of computing power beyond historical patterns with an attendant drop in cost and what that means for society and the economy. One result of that growth was making the neural networks behind today's Artificial Intelligence economically viable. The book delves into the strengths and limitations of current AI, including some of the limitations of the very large neural networks of generative AI such as ChatGPT. Neural networks have been very successful in solving specialized problems, but the book explains why the billions of dollars being spent to build ever-larger neural nets will not create the results expected due to basic technical limitations. The result will be, however, a growth in very large computer centers that further accelerate a drop in the cost of computing.

The book addresses how that exponentially growing computer power will change the way we interact with digital systems in fundamental and unexpected ways. One impact explored in depth is the role of "conversational" systems that allow us to interact with digital systems using human language-speech or text. Advances in such systems will allow us to do most of our interaction with computers and companies through digital assistants, the result of continuing evolution of today's digital assistants such as Apple's Siri and Anthropic's Claude. That evolution will allow us to maintain a true interactive conversation, without long pauses or being dropped out of the conversation into a list of web sites.

The Limits of AI additionally addresses issues including what "Artificial Intelligence" really means, the impact on jobs, the limitations of today's generative AI, the power of neural networks in specialized applications, how conversing naturally with digital assistants in text or speech will evolve, and the impact of these advances on the economy, war, cybersecurity, and government. Our connection with computers will tighten and become part of what it means to be human.