The Emergent Mind

The chatbots we have today use artificial neural networks that were originally developed as models of how the mind works. This book does an excellent job of explaining the ideas that led to these neural networks without requiring any prior knowledge of either mathematics or psychology. Important concepts like distributed representations are explained gently and skilfully. After reading this book, you will have a much better understanding of both chatbots and the mind – Geoffrey E. Hinton, 2024 Nobel laureate in PhysicsThis book takes you on a fascinating journey to discover how a three-pound blob of meat between your ears – your brain – dynamically wires itself to the world to create the whirlwind of electrical, chemical and magnetic signals called your mind. Can AI have a mind? Read this book and see what you think – Lisa Feldman Barrett, author of How Emotions Are MadeNeural networks define both our brains and, no accident, modern AI systems. Each is built out of simple processing units. But linked together these building blocks create systems of immense complexity that underpin not just our intelligence but our wants, goals and even consciousness. This book tells the vital, fascinating story of how. By providing a clear account of how mind-like abilities emerge – in both humans and machines – Suri and McClelland offer an indispensable guide to both ourselves and the coming age of AI – Mustafa Suleyman, bestselling co-author of The Coming WaveStart with a type of simple building block, throw a zillion copies of them together and – more is different! – the blocks self-organize into a complex system with properties indescribable at the reductive level. Nowhere is this phenomenon more interesting than when ‘mind’ emerges from billions of neurons, and no one is better positioned to explain how neural networks produce minds than these pioneering authors. This superb book is deeply stimulating and disarmingly accessible – Robert Sapolsky, author of DeterminedJay McClelland is one of the most influential living cognitive psychologists, having pioneered the revival of neural network modelling of cognition which led to the ‘Great AI Awakening’ of the past decade. Together with Gaurav Suri, he has now written a lucid, invaluable introduction to neural networks and their implications for understanding the human mind – Steven Pinker, author of RationalityHave you ever wondered how your mind works? How we make decisions? Whether we’re ‘rational’? To find out, read this book! – Carol Dweck, author of Mindset

Jay McClelland is a professor of Psychology and of Computer Science and Linguistics at Stanford University. He is one of the most influential and well-known cognitive scientists of the past century. He is the founder of the study of artificial neural networks and his publications have been cited over one hundred thousand times. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.

Gaurav Suri is an associate professor of psychology at San Francisco State University. He is a computational neuroscientist and an experimental psychologist. He is the director of RADLab, where he studies the mechanisms that shape motivated action and decision making.

The authors met in 2014. Both live in the San Francisco Bay area.