What is Artificial Intelligence?
You must have read ‘artificial intelligence’ being used in articles or blogs. Have you ever wondered what it is?
Originally, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was defined as any task performed by a program or a machine, that if a human had to perform, we would suggest that the human applied intelligence for the task. That is a broad and generic definition coined in the 1950s. Over the years, AI has evolved to indicate and include many meanings and roles. Artificial Intelligence is meant for machines to learn, adjust, understand, and develop and perform human-like tasks. AI systems or machines will usually demonstrate some behaviors associated with human intelligence such as reasoning, logic, problem solving, knowledge representation, learning, planning, perception, motion, manipulation, and to a lesser extent creativity, humor, and social intelligence.
The most common examples of AI is Alexa from Amazon and Siri from Apple. There are other widely used but not so popular systems such as facial recognition, recognizing spam mails, detecting credit card fraud, or search capabilities. AI can be split into two categories- Narrow and General.
Narrow AI includes speech and language recognition in Siri virtual assistant on the iPhone. The vision recognition systems in self-driving cars, the recommendation engines that suggest products you may like are also examples of Narrow AI. They have been taught how to carry out specific tasks without being programmed to do so. Unlike humans, these systems can only handle particular tasks, which is why they are called Narrow AI. Hence, you may notice Alexa or Siri unable to respond to vague or confusing questions. Narrow AI is also being used to tackle particular tasks and roles. The latest applications for Narrow AI are interpreting video feeds from drones, organizing personal and business calendars, assisting radiologists spot tumors in X-rays, flagging offensive or inappropriate content online, responding to customer service queries, and co-ordinating with other intelligent systems to configure hotel bookings. These are just some of the applications of Narrow AI.
General AI resembles the type of adaptable intelligence found in humans. It is a flexible intelligence which can teach how to carry out a variety of roles and tasks. General AI learns based on accumulated data or intelligence and applies its existing data to carry out new tasks or duties. This is the type of AI or systems usually shown in movies (The Terminator) but doesn’t exist today.
There are challenges of using or employing AI and one of them is to know the limits. AI first and foremost is something that relies on learning from data. There is no other way or method to ensure machine learning or AI systems. So it means that inaccurate, poor, or inconsistent data will affect the AI. If there any separate layers of prediction or analysis, they will have to be studied on their own. The existing AI systems are very specific and limited. Something that detects credit card fraud may not be able to predict or detect tax fraud. Each AI system has its purpose and it will not function even on the periphery.
The benefits of AI are several and they allow users to improve their experiences over time. AI is incredibly accurate. The more you use certain systems the perfect they get at predicting your needs and uses. AI also enhances a certain product with its application. AI isn’t sold separately or on its own. Instead, it added to products to broaden your experience and customize your interface. For example, Siri is added to Apple phones to offer a new feature, an assistant, and an easy way to access information. In this way, many technologies can be improved by applying AI or adding AI capabilities. AI can also analyze deep data or hidden layers of data. The new or latest fraud detection systems can penetrate through several layers, which was nearly impossible a few years ago. The more data you feed the AI systems, the better they become at solving problems and carrying out tasks.
AI is a vast and limitless technology which is added to existing machines or systems to improve their usability. It has been used in various fields such as health care, retail, technology, finance, lifestyle, and fitness to make life easier for consumers. The applications of AI in certain fields also benefit science, research, and future generations as it becomes constructive and generative. The future of AI is exciting and can be explored with changing the way machines learn, how data is studied, the patterns, and how to adapt to human intelligence. While there is a long way to go, we are at the cusp of an exciting new chapter in AI and its applications.
