1 Welcome to the Robot World

"We are truly living in the most exciting time to be alive!" These words, by the great tech entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, are even more true for people working in the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. There is a reason why AI jobs are considered the sexiest jobs of the 21st century: besides being very well paid, AI is a fantastic topic to work on.

AI is taking a more and more important place in the world, and today we can find applications of it in almost all industries. This is not a temporary trend; AI is here to stay. As the top AI leader and influencer Andrew Ng said, AI is the new electricity. Just like the industrial revolution transformed lives and jobs in the 19th century, AI is about to do the same in this 21st century. Hence, the more you understand and know how to use it, the more opportunities will open up to you.

To give you some important figures, according to a study done by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, which is more than the current output of China and India combined. So, you've definitely made a great choice to study this field. Welcome to the incredible world of Artificial Intelligence!

In this chapter, you will begin your AI journey with a top-level view of everything you'll learn from this book as you read and work through the chapters ahead with me. Then, I'll help you understand where learning AI can take you, by going through a variety of top industry applications for Artificial Intelligence.