THE FUTRE IS OURS When humans first evolved, we were basically indistinguishable from animals. Then we harnessed the power of fire, and it catapulted us beyond a state of animalism. Since then, human innovation has propelled us from one technological revolution to the next. We are now at the next world-altering wave of technological evolution: artificial intelligence. But the current AI offerings cannot fulfill our fundamental desire to communicate with our technology through speech. We didn't evolve to type or use a mouse; we evolved to have conversations, including with our technology. We want the USS Enterprise shipboard computer, J.A.R.V.I.S. from Iron Man, the interface from Her. But we are not there yet. Conversational AI and AI in general are collectively our next fire, light bulb, or internet. And we must thank Apple, Google, and Amazon for whetting our appetite with Siri, Google Home, and Alexa. But now we're ready for what's next. That's where the groundbreaking work of computer scientist Jason Mars and Clinc, the company he founded, comes in. Breaking Bots paints a thrilling portrait of the past, present, and future of the AI revolution through Jason's unlikely journey to AI stardom, the extraordinary rise of Clinc from a scrappy start-up to a juggernaut toppler, and the paradigm-shifting technical and cultural DNA that makes Jason's work and Clinc's technology the future of AI. The AI revolution is at hand--and you are part of the journey!

There has been an increasing interest in bryophyte ecology over the past 100 or so years, initially of a phytosociological nature but, additionally, in recent years, of an experimental nature as well. Early studies of bryophyte communities have led to detailed investigations into the relationships between the plants and their environment. Ecological papers, the large number of which is evidenced by the length of the bibliographies in the subsequent chapters, have appeared in numerous journals. Yet, apart from review chapters, by H. Gams and P. W. Richards in Manual of Bryology, edited b:; H. Verdoorn in 1932 and chapters in E. V. Watson's Structure and Life of Bryophytes, Prem Puri's Bryophytes - A Broad Perspective and D. H. S. Richardson's The Biology of Mosses, published in 1972,1973 and 1981 respectively, no general accounts of bryophyte ecology have been published. Although the Bryophyta is a relatively small division of plants, with between 14000 and 21000 species the interest that they have aroused is out of all proportion to the size either of the plants or of the division. It is evident, however, that despite their relative insigni ficance they play an important ecological role, especially in extreme environments and, in the case of bryophytes in tropical cloud forests and of Sphagnum, may even be a dominant factor in the ecology of the area concerned.