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Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Deep Learning

Deep Learning by John D. Kelleher. John is the Academic Leader of the Information, Communication and Entertainment research institute at the Technological University Dublin. He has previously taught at Dublin City University, Media Lab Europe, and DFKI (the German Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research).

Deep Learning by John D. Kelleher

This is a very good introduction to specific subsets of artificial intelligence that are indeed powering imaging, speech recognition, machine translation, and autonomous cars today.

Consumers may forget as they are engaging various technologies, their interactions are via Deep Learning systems. This includes interactions with Siri on iPhones, and Alexa on all things from Amazon. To a lesser extent is Cortana from Microsoft. Actually, John provides a wonderful glossary. This serves the reader well in helping to further develop their understanding of Deep Learning systems.

Likewise, his introduction illustrates how Deep learning delivers data-driven decisions from very large datasets. The key is Deep Learning deliver immediate ‘learning’ as the large datasets grow.

In addition, his insights on autoencoders, recurrent neural networks, and Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) are very stimulating. At the same time, addressing gradient descent and especially backpropagation is amazing in of itself.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest Read: The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam by Max Boot. A New York Times bestseller, The Road Not Taken was a 2019 finalist for Pulitzer Prize in biography.

The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam by Max Boot

Max is a former writer and editor for Christian Science Monitor and The Wall Street Journal. Today he is a Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition, Max is a contributor to The Washington Post and writes for The Weekly Standard, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.

In providing a detailed story of Edward Lansdale’s entire life, perhaps for the first time Max documents the history of American counterinsurgency in post World War II Asia.

Edward certainly had a talent for winning the loyalty of people with honesty, respecting their cultures, and viewing the world from his family’s strong Christian Science beliefs. In addition, Max repeats the idea that Edward is indeed the agent in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American.

The Road Not Taken certainly serves as a resource to understanding how the CIA established counterinsurgency and was very successful at first. Yet we see how Washington withdrew key support at critical stages in both Cuba and South Vietnam. It is no wonder that Edward was unable to fully apply proven lessons from The Philippines in partnership between CIA and US military operatives in confronting communist expansion in Laos and Vietnam.

Early life to College

Although, it would appear somewhat insignificant that Edward attended UCLA and began his career as an advertising executive, he would clash with Kennedy’s Ivy League White House. Yet, Edward would join the CIA (then known as The Office of Strategic Services) during World War II. Edward rose to become an advisor, then assigned as an intelligence officer deployed to across Southeast Asia. Edward clearly understood during his efforts how to successfully confront communist advances during the Cold War. Time has certainly proven the arrogance and lack of firsthand experience inside Kennedy’s White House drove Vietnam into the ditch. One of the stronger impressions is Edward establishing successful Asian counterinsurgency programs beginning in 1945.

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Design Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Hit Makers

Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction
by Derek Thompson. Derek is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Hit Makers is the winner of the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Book Award for 2018. Derek launched the Plain English podcast and is now producing the Crazy/Genius podcast.

Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction by Derek Thompson

So, why do specific songs, movies, books, and even mobile apps became popular? Hit Makers is addressing how popularity increases sales or cultural status.

However, for a technology-driven focus, including a book cover with Facebook icons, Derek’s initial story about the most famous song in history is very ancient.

Brahms’s lullaby “Guten Abend, gute Nacht” known to Americans as “Lullaby and good night” is indeed a historical interesting story. However, it would be better to address Hit Makers in the post-iPhone era alone.

It am not convinced however that Generation Alpha will understand these ancient ‘hits’ regardless of how they were developed.

However, these hits will resonate with Gen X and Millennials. Then, Derek quickly jumps into the 1950s addressing the introduction and impact of television. This provides a certainly compelling story of ESPN and the market popularity this creates for Disney.

Yet, even his story about European painters with a famous collection is again from an era so long ago. This also lacks widespread availability at the time (beyond early museums) so the impact is not really addressed from a colonial era of pop culture, as it was fixed within specific circles and classes.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ 25th Anniversary edition by Daniel Goleman. As a science journalist Daniel reports on brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times.

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman

Daniel is a co-founder of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Originally at the Yale Child Studies Center, it is now at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition, he currently co-directs the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations at Rutgers University.

Daniel is recognized with the Washburn Award for science journalism. The American Psychological Association awarded Daniel a Lifetime Career Award. Furthermore, Daniel is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In addition, he has also organized a series of intensive conversations between the Dalai Lama and scientists, which resulted in the books Healthy Emotions, and Destructive Emotions.

Initially published in 1995, this book was on The New York Times bestseller list for almost two years, selling over five million copies in 40 languages. The Harvard Business Review has called Emotional Intelligence “a revolutionary, paradigm-shattering idea.” In addition, his article “What Makes a Leader” is one of ten “must-read” articles from its pages. His book Focus is also a very interesting and insightful book.

In addition, Emotional Intelligence is one of the 25 “Most Influential Business Management Books” by TIME Magazine. Finally, The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and Accenture Institute for Strategic Change have listed Daniel among the most influential business thinkers.

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Artificial Intelligence Education Reading

Latest Read: The Myth of Artificial Intelligence

The Myth of Artificial Intelligence Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do by Erik Larson. Erik is an entrepreneur and former research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin where he focused in machine learning and natural language processing.

The Myth of Artificial Intelligence by Erik Larson

In addition, Erik founded two DARPA-funded AI startups and works on core issues in natural language processing and machine learning. Erik has written for The Atlantic.

Artificial Intelligence seems to be the buzzword of the last twenty years, for better or for worse. For some it is the savior of humanity. For others, the spawn of the devil.

So, does AI actually deliver on superior knowledge systems surpassing human capabilities? Actually, there are valid points by Erik to reveal quite the opposite.

The real challenge proposed by Erik is that so many noted authors on AI, and all their books promising AI’s coming revolution have really all missed their target dates. All of those noted experts made bold predictions to delivery dates of systems that surpass all human knowledge and the downstream effect AI will play upon both markets and society. So why in 2022 have they all missed the mark?

The book is broken into three parts: The Simplified World, the Problems of Inference, and the Future of the Myth. These opening chapters should be considered mandatory reading for every middle school student as Part 1 is certainly well researched. At less than seventy pages, Erik provides a grounded explanation to the early foundation that brought AI forward. From Chapter Two, Turing at Bletchley, to Chapter Five, Natural Language Understanding.

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