In our continuing series of book reviews, the Fortra team read How AI Works: From Sorcery to Science by Ronald T. Kneusel. The book is advertised as unraveling “the mysteries of artificial intelligence, without the complex math and unnecessary jargon.”

I really enjoyed how the book began with an AI Overview. As a hot sauce fan, I found it amusing that the first example utilized a hot sauce factory. The entire overview is an excellent read for anyone curious about the basics of AI, and it was expertly told.

Other members of the team had good things to say about the book:

“How AI Works” is a great beginner-friendly book that doesn’t throw you into the deep end and make you swim for your life. The author does a good job of explaining core concepts at the beginning and then gives the reader a deep and rich history of how AI came to be. This set the stage for an exposition of all the different models and types of AI. I was interested in the LLM section of the book. In that section, the author gives detailed explanations and provides interesting comparisons between the likes of ChatGPT and Bard, showing the advancements of each iteration of LLM and their limitations. I recommend that anyone interested in learning about the history of artificial intelligence – or what the future could bring in the AI field – pick up a copy.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

– Matthew Jerzewski, Cybersecurity Researcher III, Fortra

“How AI Works” is a very illustrative book for anyone willing to start in the AI world. It is also a good tool for those who are already in this world to get a better understanding of AI concepts. I want to emphasize that the author addresses not only technical concepts but also current limitations, future applications, and issues related to bias and its implications. These analyses make this a very complete and enriching read.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

– Carolina Velez, Manager, Cybersecurity Research, Fortra

“How AI Works”, by Ronald T. Kneusel, explains the process of feeding data to AI and how it subsequently generates data. The author explains the evolution of AI and how technology has improved to make it more feasible. Several variants of AI and how these variants interpret data are also described i,”n detail. The introductory explanations allow the reader to understand the differences in previous versions of AI. In chapter 7, the author touches on Large Language Models and how different versions can produce different results. This allows the reader to understand the differences between the different versions of LLMs and how output can change. The final chapter allows the reader to understand where the author thinks AI is going and how it will benefit society.

Rating 4.8/5.0

– Andrew Swoboda, Senior Cybersecurity Researcher, Fortra

“How AI Works” is an excellent introduction to AI that delves into its history, where it currently is, and its future trajectory.  The author’s extensive experience in AI is evident throughout the book, and he does a good job explaining concepts in easy-to-understand ways.  At times, the book does necessarily get into someChapter more technical details, which the author tries to keep to a minimum and make as digestible as possible.  While these parts weren’t the most thrilling to read, they did get across the foundational knowledge required to understand the current technology of Large Language Learning Models.  The extent of my knowledge of AI before reading this book was exhausted by chapter 3, which covered Machine Learning, so the technology behind the current AI models was all new to me.  While the technical details sometimes made me wonder if I would prefer to leave my knowledge of AI as sorcery rather than learning the science, once the technical details were over, I enjoyed reading how they were used to solve problems, and I appreciate the technical understanding I gained. Overall, I enjoyed reading How AI Works and would recommend it to anyone wanting to gain a general understanding of current AI technology and how we got here.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

– Darlene Hibbs, Senior Cybersecurity Researcher, Fortra

I agree with the 5-star reviews here. This book is not only well-written, but written in a way that anyone can understand it. This type of writing style is important for introductory tech books on new technologies.

Overall Rating: 4.75/5.0

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