Engineering Conscious Machines Through Visual Understanding

Can a machine see the world as we do, and understand it with human-like intelligence?

This groundbreaking book tackles one of the greatest challenges in Artificial General Intelligence (AGI, machines with broad, human-level cognitive abilities): designing systems that perceive, reason, and act with the flexibility, adaptability, and awareness of the human mind.

Maria Johnsen expertly combines insights from neuroscience, cognitive science, machine learning, and robotics to build the technical and conceptual foundation for visual AGI, machines that don't just recognize images but comprehend context, infer meaning, and make decisions as conscious agents.

Unlike traditional devices, my invention doesn't just recreate images it provides semantic, context-aware visual understanding, making it ideal for assisting the blind in real-world environments with navigation, object recognition, and safety.

This book can help creating many AGI devices. For example: Governments can't afford to install and monitor CCTV cameras in every park or public space, it's expensive and often reactive rather than preventative. Yet we continue to witness assaults, even murders, in parks and places where joggers, seniors, and children spend time, crimes that often go unpunished due to a lack of evidence or witnesses. In my book, I introduce a groundbreaking solution: using Visual AGI to develop affordable, intelligent systems that can monitor public spaces, detect criminal behavior, and respond in real time. These systems don't just record footage, they understand context, recognize patterns of violence, and alert authorities immediately, even when no one else is around. Unlike traditional surveillance, these AI-driven devices can be lightweight, low-cost, and highly adaptive, offering protection in the places where people are most vulnerable. My goal is to inspire innovators to build safer communities through intelligent technology that sees, thinks, and acts with purpose.