macOS Artificial intelligence / life

[Cromulent]

Is anyone else here in AI or AL at all? I was wondering if anyone knew of any good resources that dealt with the subjects from a more academic perspective rather than a games perspective?

Anyone dabbled in neural nets or genetic algorithms in order to solve any problems? The more I read about these things the more interesting I find it.

I really have to stop reading, the more I read the more different areas I get interested in. If I'm not careful I find myself just reading random stuff and never getting my head down to work.

 

[mobilehaathi]

I really have to stop reading...

No no no!!!

I haven't taken the class yet at my Univ, but the upper level AI class here uses "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach" by Russell and Norvig. Can't say I know much about it....but if you have about $100 to gamble on a textbook...

What a useless post, sorry!

*Edit*
Our grad level class uses "Empirical Methods for Artificial Intelligence" by Cohen...
I might reccomend learning some stats and probability theory if you're very serious about getting into it

 

[Columbo X]

Ai

I've used neural networks / image analysis for an automated identification system and more recently for car control in games. The best book I've read on Neural Nets is "Fundamentals of Neural Networks" by Laurene Fausett. It's quite mathematical but well written and quite detailed. Judith Dayhoff's book "Neural Network Architectures: An Introduction" is less mathematical but a very good introduction to the subject. The best book on Genetic Algorithms is David Goldberg's book "Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization and Machine Learning".

 

[robbieduncan]

I did a joint degree: Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science at Edinburgh (96-00) so studies these sort of topics at Uni. A lot of what we were learning seemed to be changing all the time! Still got my course notes around...

 

[Cromulent]

probability theory if you're very serious about getting into it

That is my favourite mathematical field .

 

[mobilehaathi]

That is my favourite mathematical field .

Cheers, mine too!

 

[lee1210]

No no no!!!

I haven't taken the class yet at my Univ, but the upper level AI class here uses "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach" by Russell and Norvig. Can't say I know much about it....but if you have about $100 to gamble on a textbook...

What a useless post, sorry!

*Edit*
Our grad level class uses "Empirical Methods for Artificial Intelligence" by Cohen...
I might reccomend learning some stats and probability theory if you're very serious about getting into it

My AI course at university used the Russell and Norvig text. I just scoured my desk to see if i had my copy here at work, or if it's at home (or perhaps I've given it away...). It isn't here, but from my recollection it was a pretty good text. I don't believe it went as far as genetic algorithms and neural nets, however (I could be forgetting, though...), but was more focused on some of the more basic algorithms like alpha-beta pruning, hill-climbing, etc.

The projects the prof. gave us were rubbish, so I didn't really enjoy the course too much, but the subject was interesting. We did cover some machine learning with a reliable teacher or without, etc. Unfortunately I can't give much info on the more advanced topics, but if I come upon my copy of the text I'll skim through it and see if it seems like a good place to start.

I don't know how much it would be to ship from here to the UK, but I could certainly live without it if I still have it around.

-Lee

 

[Catfish_Man]

Norvig's book is the standard text for the majority of AI classes iirc. He's the head of R&D at Google now.

Coincidence? I think not...

 

[lazydog]

I really enjoyed reading this book and can thoroughly recommend it as a good read:

The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems and Adaptation by GW Flake.

Not as heavy as an academic book, but still plenty of maths and ideas to get stuck into and experiment/play around with. It covers a lot of areas including computable/non-computable problems, chaos, complexity, genetic algorithms and neural nets.

b e n

 

[TomM]

AI for Game Developers

I found the O'Reilly book AI for Game Developers by David Bourg and Glenn Seemann. It gives very good introduction to several AI topics along with C and C++ code. I went through the neural networks chapter and translated the example from C++ to Python. The explanations in the book are clear and make it easy to do such things.

This is a practical book with clear discussions and examples of how to program and use different AI features. This is a good introduction for people who haven't had much exposure to AI.

There are many complete examples where it's easy to type in the code and watch it work.

Amazon has it for $33.96 at
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b...field-keywords=AI+for+Game+Developers&x=0&y=0

TomM

 

[Cromulent]

I was actually thinking about getting Introduction to Neural Networks by Kevin Gurney. I also found a copy of Genetic Programming by John Koza as well so I guess I should have some reading to do. Does anyone have any experience with these at all?