Genius Makers

1. Genesis

"Frankenstein Monster Designed by Navy That Thinks."

On July 7, 1958, several men gathered around a machine inside the offices of the United States Weather Bureau in Washington, D.C., about fifteen blocks west of the White House. As wide as a kitchen refrigerator, twice as deep, and nearly as tall, the machine was just one piece of a mainframe computer that fanned across the room like a multipiece furniture set. It was encased in silvery plastic, reflecting the light from above, and the front panel held row after row of small round lightbulbs, red square buttons, and thick plastic switches, some white and some gray. Normally, this $2 million machine ran calculations for the Weather Bureau, the forerunner of the National Weather Service, but on this day, it was on loan to the U.S. Navy and a twenty-nine-year-old Cornell University professor named Frank Rosenblatt.

As a newspaper reporter looked on, Rosenblatt and his Navy cohorts fed two white cards into the machine, one marked with a small square on the left, the other marked on the right. Initially, the machine couldn't tell them apart, but after it read another fifty cards, that changed. Almost every time, it correctly identified where the card was marked-left or right. As Rosenblatt explained it, the machine had learned this skill on its own, thanks to a mathematical system modeled on the human brain. He called it a Perceptron. In the future, he said, this system would learn to recognize printed letters, handwritten words, spoken commands, and even people's faces, before calling out their names. It would translate one language into another. And in theory, he added, it could clone itself on an assembly line, explore distant planets, and cross the line from computation into sentience.

"The Navy revealed the embryo of an electronic computer today that it expects will be able to walk, talk, see, write, reproduce itself, and be conscious of its existence," read the article that appeared the next morning in the New York Times. A second article, in the Sunday edition, said that Navy officials hesitated to call this a machine because it was "so much like a human being without life." Rosenblatt grew to resent the way the popular press covered the event, particularly a headline in Oklahoma ("Frankenstein Monster Designed by Navy That Thinks"). In later years, among colleagues and in his published writings, he described the project in more measured terms. He insisted it was not an attempt at artificial intelligence, and he acknowledged its limitations. Still, the idea slipped from his grasp.

The Perceptron was one of the first neural networks, an early incarnation of the technology Geoff Hinton would auction to the highest bidder more than fifty years later. But before it reached that $44 million moment, let alone the extravagant future predicted across the pages of the New York Times in the summer of 1958, it descended into academic obscurity. By the early 1970s, after those lavish predictions met the limitations of Rosenblatt's technology, the idea was all but dead.

Frank Rosenblatt was born on July 11, 1928, in New Rochelle, New York, just north of the Bronx. He attended Bronx Science, the elite public high school that eventually produced eight Nobel laureates, six Pulitzer Prize winners, eight National Medal of Science winners, and three recipients of the Turing Award, the world?s top computer science prize. A small, thin man with fleshy jowls and short, dark, wavy hair who wore standard-issue black-rimmed glasses, Rosenblatt was trained in psychology, but his interests were much wider. In 1953, the New York Times published a small story describing an early computer he used to crunch data for his PhD thesis. Called EPAC-short for electronic profile-analyzing computer-it analyzed the psychological profiles of his patients. As the years passed, he came to believe that machines could provide an even greater und

"Unlike many of the books written about AI, you don t need a science or engineering degree to learn from and enjoy this one. Anyone with an enthusiastic curiosity about science, technology and the future of human culture will find this clear-eyed, snappily written book both entertaining and valuable. You could even call it essential for any policymakers, politicians, police, lawyers, judges and decision-makers who will be contending with the social forces unleashed by artificial intelligence. Which, soon, will mean all of them."
The Los Angeles Times

"[An] engaging new book... [Metz s] straightforward writing perfectly translates industry jargon for technologically un-savvy readers (like me) who might be unfamiliar with what it means for a machine to engage in 'deep learning' or master tasks through its own experiences."
Christian Science Monitor

"Carving a narrative out of a complex and ever-changing cast of characters... The book is filled with enlightening anecdotes that add texture and drama to the story. Genius Makers opens with Geoffrey Hinton, the Brit turned Canadian who is widely recognized as having played the most critical role in developing deep learning, the branch of AI that is changing the world today."
Washington Post

"A ringside seat at what may turn out to be the pivotal episode in human history... Metz has a breezy style that is easy and fun to read... undeniably charming."
Forbes

"Colorful and readable... draws on extensive access and meticulous research."
Financial Times

"Valuably suggests a framework for the right questions to ask now about AI and its use. Genius Makers is about the people who have built the AI world."
James Fallows, The New York Times Book Review

"The first book to chronicle the rise of savant-like artificial intelligence (AI), and the last we ll ever need A ripping good read."
William Softky, Fair Observer

"An informative, enjoyable work With vivid detail, Metz has crafted an accessible narrative that will keep readers turning the pages."
Library Journal (starred review)

"A must-read, fully-up-to-date report on the holy grail of computing."
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"With well-crafted storytelling and extensive research, Metz captures the thrill and promise of technological innovation."
Booklist

"Written by an expert who has exclusive access to each of these companies and others who are working in this field this is a rich, character-driven narrative that captures an extraordinary moment in the history of technology."
Irish Tech News

"In Genius Makers, Cade Metz delivers the definitive take on how AI technology came to be and what its arrival will mean for us humans. The book relies on tireless reporting and delightful writing to bring to life one of the most surprising and important stories of our time. If you want to read one book to understand AI, this is the one."
Ashlee Vance, New York Times bestselling author of Elon Musk

"This colorful page-turner puts artificial intelligence into a human perspective. Through the lives of Geoff Hinton and other major players, Metz explains this transformative technology and makes the quest thrilling."
Walter Isaacson,