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Only one topic in this newsletter: a new book on AI. With a special discount for the loyal and patient readers of the Software Engineering Newsletter! AI for Smarties Bertrand Meyer Smarties Press, July 2026 Available at https://ai-for-smarties.com/ It is an e-book; the purchase includes one-year free updates. Only for readers of this newsletter: extra discount of €3 (also until July 15). Use the magic coupon code About the book: “AI for Smarties” is a general introduction to AI, presenting the technology as clearly as possible. It does not shy away from the technical aspects and in particular the math, but explains everything and assumes no special knowledge from the reader. Actually I think a curious high-school student can understand everything and (I hope) enjoy it. One of the reasons for writing this book was that I kept running into people with a good education who were fascinated by AI but had no clue of what’s inside; unable, for example, to answer such questions as “what does a neuron in a neural network actually compute”? The book explains this and all the essentials, all the way to transformers (the explanations for which in the literature are, in my experience, often nebulous, complicated and confusing). It also discusses many practical aspects of AI, with two chapters on education (one about self-learning and the other about educational institutions) and chapters respectively on using AI properly, the risks of AI (hallucinations, IP looting, AGI, good form covering bad substance etc.), organizing one’s career in the presence of AI, and of course the effect on software development. The site has the full table of contents and other information. I hope you will like the book and share the information.
Want to read earlier newsletters (back to October 2025)? They are archived here. Cover photo: AI for Smarties, cover page. |
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