A.I.

[Nick]

There are two camps with AI that have been raging ever since Turing and Gödel.

The first is "Hard AI" which says that it is possible, in principle, to produce a machine that is truly intelligent.

The diametric opposite says that it is impossible. And there are several gradations between these two limiting cases.

The books to read for these two views are Gödel, Escher and Bach by Douglas Hofstadter, and The Emperor's New Mind (and Shadows of the Mind) by Roger Penrose.

GEB is an excellent, though not easy, read and was way ahead of it's time when originally published (1979) - fascinating. Penrose is just all-round interesting Renaissance man - he has so many strings to his bow and he write so well - a much easier read than GEB.

Strongly recommend both books.