Reviews
"Argues convincingly that the future of artificial intelligence lies . . . in programs that can automatically improve themselves over time--without the bias of human knowledge. . . . I wholeheartedly recommend it to the general public and AI experts alike." -- Dr. Peter Stone, Artificial Intelligence Principles Research Department, AT&T Labs Research "An absorbing and enchanting tale of a personal quest for the deeper meaning of AI." -- Nicholas Gessler, Director, UCLA Center for Computational Social Science "Leads us to question the accepted vision for attaining true AI." -- Dr. Ian Watson, Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland "David has written an important and influential book. Not only is the discussion of Blondie24, the cute checker playing heroine of the book, a lively romp through the ins and outs of evolutionary programming but it sets the stage for David's more serious and far reaching discussion of what is right and wrong in our quest for a companion intelligence". -- Earl Cox, Vice President and Chief Scientist, Panacya, Inc. "Blondie24 is a fascinating and informative book that will be absolutely engrossing for anyone with an interest in artificial intelligence and computers. Although Master-level checkers programs have been around for a while, they have all used brute force to achieve their goals. The Blondie24 project represents the first serious attempt since Samuel's experiments in the 1950s to do something much more interesting and elegant: create a checkers program that can learn on its own. This book is easily accessible for the uninitiated, and I guarantee that you'll be swept along." -- Gil Dodgen, author of the computer program, World Championship Checkers "My AI students will love this engaging and instructive book, and it will fit perfectly into my HAL based course on AI Programming. This book will do much in establishing the connection between artificial evolution and artificial intelligence. The ice of the 'AI winter' is at last beginning to melt and it feels good!" -- Dr. Julian Miller, School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, "Meet Blondie. She's a 24-year old graduate student in mathematics at the University of California at San Diego. She skis and surfs, and is an ace at math. But her real claim to fame is her amazing ability to play checkers. She's really good--not good enough to defeat a grand master, but she did earn a spot in the top 500 of an international checkers tournament. Considering that she taught herself how to play without reading books, taking classes, or getting tips from experienced players--that's impressive. And considering that Blondie is only a computer program, and the rest of her persona is just a product my imagination, you might say that's really impressive!"-- from the Introduction, "Meet Blondie. She's a 24-year old graduate student in mathematics at the University of California at San Diego. She skis and surfs, and is an ace at math. But her real claim to fame is her amazing ability to play checkers. She's really good--not good enough to defeat a grand master, but she did earn a spot in the top 500 of an international checkers tournament. Considering that she taught herself how to play without reading books, taking classes, or getting tips from experienced players--that's impressive. And considering that Blondie is only a computer program, and the rest of her persona is just a product my imagination, you might say that's really impressive!" --from the Introduction
