The Shortest History of AI: Meet the Author Toby Walsh

Six ideas to understand artificial intelligence today

Since Alan Turing first posed the question, ‘Can machines think?’, artificial intelligence has evolved from a speculative idea to a transformative force. The Shortest History of AI traces this evolution, from Ada Lovelace’s visionary work to IBM’s groundbreaking defeat of the chess world champion and the revolutionary emergence of ChatGPT. It also explores AI’s cultural journey, touching on classics such as Frankenstein, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Revealing how many ‘overnight’ successes were decades in the making, this accessible and illuminating book simplifies AI into six key ideas, equipping readers to understand where we’ve been – and where we’re headed.

TOBY WALSH is one of the world’s leading researchers in artificial intelligence. He is a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales and chief scientist at its new AI institute, UNSW.ai. He is the author of four previous books about AI, including Machines Behaving Badly and Faking It.