When you hear the words artificial intelligence, what comes to mind? Something akin to a terminator-style robot overlord killing humans or robots taking over the world. If you do, I’m sorry that AI isn’t about that, and Hollywood may have influenced your thinking. So, what exactly is AI?
While several definitions of artificial intelligence (AI) have been proposed over the years, the father of AI, John McCarthy, offers the following description in this 2004 paper
It is the science and engineering that goes into the development of intelligent machines, specifically intelligent computer programs. It’s similar to using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI doesn’t have to be limited to biologically observable methods.
However, the birth of the artificial intelligence debate was marked decades before this definition by Alan Turing’s seminal work, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, which was published in 1950. Turing, known as the “Father of Computer Science,” poses the question, “Can machines think?” in this paper. He proposes the “Turing Test,” in which a human interrogator attempts to distinguish between a computer and a human text response. While this test has been heavily scrutinized since its publication, it remains an essential part of the history of AI and an ongoing concept within philosophy due to its use of linguistic ideas.
Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, two experts in the field, then published Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, quickly becoming one of the leading textbooks in studying AI. In it, they delve into four potential AI goals or definitions, distinguishing computer systems based on rationality and thinking vs. acting:
Human approach:
- Systems that think like humans
- Systems that act like humans
Ideal approach:
- Systems that think rationally
- Systems that act rationally
While all of the preceding definitions are correct, I believe Wikipedia’s definition of AI as “intelligence demonstrated by machines as opposed to natural intelligence demonstrated by animals, including humans” is a more straightforward definition of AI. Following that, we will look at the foundations of artificial intelligence.
Foundations Of Artificial Intelligence
The subjects on which Artificial Intelligence is based include
- Philosophy
- Mathematics
- Economics
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Computer Engineering
- Linguistics
- Control Theory and Cybernetics
Types of Artificial Intelligence
Weak AI
Weak AI, also known as Narrow AI or Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), is AI that has been trained and focused on performing specific tasks. Weak AI drives the majority of the AI that surrounds us today. This type of AI is anything but weak; it powers applications like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, IBM Watson, and self-driving cars.
Strong AI
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) comprise Strong AI. Artificial general intelligence (AGI), also known as general AI, is a theoretical form of AI in which a machine has an intelligence comparable to humans, with the ability to solve problems, learn, and plan for the future. The intelligence and knowledge of the human brain would be surpassed by Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI), also known as superintelligence. While strong AI is still entirely theoretical, with no practical examples today, AI researchers are working on it. Meanwhile, the best examples of ASI may be found in science fiction, such as HAL, the superhuman, and the rogue computer assistant in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Artificial intelligence applications
There are numerous real-world applications of AI systems today. Below are some of the most common examples:
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Recommendation Engines: AI algorithms can help discover data trends that can be used to develop more effective cross-selling strategies by using past consumption behavior data. Online retailers use this to make relevant add-on recommendations to customers during checkout.
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Automated Stock Trading: AI-driven high-frequency trading platforms designed to optimize stock portfolios and execute thousands or millions of daily trades without human intervention.
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Customer service: Online virtual agents are replacing human agents throughout the customer journey. They respond to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about shipping or provide personalized advice, such as cross-selling products or recommending sizes for users, altering how we think about customer engagement across websites and social media platforms. Messaging bots on e-commerce sites with virtual agents, messaging apps like Slack and Facebook Messenger, and tasks typically performed by virtual assistants and voice assistants are examples.
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Speech Recognition: Speech recognition is a capability that uses natural language processing (NLP) to convert human speech into a written format. It is also known as automatic speech recognition (ASR), computer speech recognition, or speech-to-text. Many mobile devices incorporate speech recognition into their systems to conduct voice searches (e.g., Siri) or to improve texting accessibility.
Milestones In Artificial Intelligence History
The milestones in AI history are to list the Turing Award winners: Marvin Minsky (1969) and John McCarthy (1971) for defining the foundations of the field based on representation and reasoning; Ed Feigenbaum and Raj Reddy (1994) for developing expert systems that encode human knowledge to solve real-world problems; Judea Pearl (2011) for developing probabilistic reasoning techniques that deal with uncertainty in a principled manner; and finally, Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yann LeCun (2019) for making deep learning(multilayer neural networks) a critical part of modern computing.
References
- “Artificial Intelligence.” IBM. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022
- “Artificial Intelligence.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, 22 July 2004.Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.
- Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach