Blondie24: Playing at the Edge of AI (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Artificial Intelligence)

425 Pages·2001·18 MB·English

by  David B. Fogel

Advance Praise for Blondiez4
David Fogel’s “Blondiez4 argues convincingly that the future of artijicial
”
intelligence lies not in programs that act like people but rather in programs that
can automatically improve themselves over time-without the bias of human
knowledge. This book describes an impressive success story of the evolution-
ary approach to AI in an engaging andjlowing style. I wholeheartedly rec-
ommend it to thegeneral public and AI experts alike.
Dr. Peter Stone, Artificial Intelligence Principles Research Depart-
ment, AT&T Labs Research
An absorbing and enchanting tale o f a personal quest for the deeper meaning
of AI: the discovery of how intelligence itseyarises. Fogel seizes the challenge
by capturing the evolutionary process and shaping it to breed a checkers ex-
pert from an artijicial neural net. Scientists, humanists, and artists will appre-
ciate his inspiring wit and clarity of thought in narrating the growth of
Blondiez4, a synthetic sentience born inside a desktop PC.
Nicholas Gessler, Director, UCLA Center for Computational
Social Science
This enthralling book willfascinate those with an interest in artijicial intelli-
gence, machine learning, and evolutionary computing. Moreover, it leads us to
question the accepted visionf or attaining true AI. The book is also to be com-
mended for the thoroughness and ingenuity of the experimental methodology
used to evaluate Blondie24. But, perhaps above all, it's a great read.
Dr. Ian Watson, Department of Computer Science, University of
Auckland
David has written an important and influential book. Not only is the dis-
cussion of Blondie2 4, the cute checkers-playing heroine of the book, a lively
romp through the ins and outs of evolutionary programming but it sets the
stagef or 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 en-
grossing for anyone with an interest in artificial intelligence and computers.
Although masters-level checkers programs have been around for a while, they
have all used brute force to achieve their goals. The Blondie24 project repre-
sents the first serious attempt since Samuel's experiments in the 195 o s to do
something much more interesting and elegant: create a checkers program that
can learn on its own. This book is easily accessiblef or the uninitiated, and I
guarantee that you'll be swept along.
Gill Dodgen, creator of the computer program World Champion-
ship Checkers
My AI students will love this engaging and instructive book, and it will fit per-
fectly into my HAL-based course on Al programming. This book will do much
in establishing the connection between artificial evolution and artificial intelli-
gence. The ice of the "AI winter" is at last beginning to melt and it feets good/
Dr. Julian Miller, School of Computer Science, University of
Birmingham
B L 0 N D I E 2 4
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David B. Fogel, Ph.D.
Playing at the Edge of AI
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For Kumar
and for
Arthur Samuel (i 9 o 1-199 o)
and
Allen Newell (192 7-1992)
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Everything must wait until its time;
science is the art of the possible.
--Allen Newell