

The path exists only in our imaginations. The myth of artificial intelligence is that its arrival is inevitable, and only a matter of time-t hat we have already embarked on the path that w ill lead to human-level AI, and then superintelligence. As to that, the future of AI is a scientific unknown. The myth is not that true AI is possible. 元7 2021 | DDC 006.3-dc23 LC record available at To Brooke and Ben CONTENTS Introduction Part I: T H E S I M P L I F I E D W O R L D 1 7 1 The Intelligence Error 9 2 Turing at Bletchley 19 3 The Superintelligence Error 33 4 The Singularity, Then and Now 44 50 5 Natural Language Understanding 6 AI as Technological Kitsch 60 68 7 Simplifications and Mysteries Part II: T H E P R O B L E M O F I N F E R E N C E 8 Don’t Calculate, Analyze 87 89 9 The Puzzle of Peirce (and Peirce’s Puzzle) 95 10 Problems with Deduction and Induction 106 viii C ontents 11 Machine Learning and Big Data 133 12 Abductive Inference 157 13 Inference and Language I 191 14 Inference and Language II 204 Part III: T H E F U T U R E O F T H E M Y T H 235 15 Myths and Heroes 237 16 AI Mythology Invades Neuroscience 245 17 Neocortical Theories of H uman Intelligence 263 18 The End of Science? 269 not e s ack now l e dgm e n ts i n de x 283 301 303 I N T RODUCT ION In the pages of this book you w ill read about the myth of artificial intelligence. | Natural language processing (Computer science) | Neurosciences. Identifiers: LCCN 2020050249 | ISBN 9780674983519 (cloth) Subjects: LCSH: Artificial intelligence. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021.


Title: The myth of artificial intelligence : why computers can't think the way we do / Erik J. Larson All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Americ a First printing Jacket design by Henry Sene Yee Jacket art courtesy of Shutterstock 9780674259928 (EPUB) 9780674259935 (PDF) The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Names: Larson, Erik J.

Table of contents : Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Introduction Part I: THE SIMPLIFIED WORLD 1.
