Basic Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
We often stumble on the word “Artificial Intelligence” daily, be it in our favorite sci-fi movies or a problem-solving-based system. We hear of incredible breakthroughs achieved by the application of Artificial Intelligence in several fields and how it is transforming the world at large.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a whole game-changer. This moment reminds me of what I thought of AI the first time I heard the word, a robotic being with superhero power developed to be superior to humans. Well, this is definitely not close to the truth. This is the first article from my AI starter series written for absolute beginners in AI and AI enthusiasts. If you belong to any of these categories, then this article is for you.
“So if AI is not exactly a robotic being with extraordinary power, what is Artificial Intelligence then?”
Artificial Intelligence is the imitation of human intelligence, our intelligence, by machines so that they can perform tasks like us more effectively, and efficiently with enhanced speed and precision. Interesting, right? For us to have a full grasp of the actual functionality of AI, we must know and understand what makes us, humans, intelligent beings. Now comes the most important question for this article.
“What defines our intelligence as humans?”
Our intelligence is defined based on how we learn, reason, solve problems, perceive, and communicate with one another. These factors form the major components of intelligence.
By imitating our intelligence, these machines acquire knowledge or skill through the experiences (data) we feed them (learning), detect patterns from these experiences (data) and use them to draw inferences (reasoning), use these inferences to perform a specific action which solves a problem (problem-solving), analyze and interpret their environment by decomposing the scene into individual objects in various spatial relationship (perception) and communicate with us in our natural language (language).
“Hold up! Even though our machines can learn, reason, perceive, solve problems and communicate, can they engage in generic reasoning, build on and optimize their existing knowledge to solve new problems, draw inferences relevant to the solution of a particular task or situation and recognize patterns without missing the major concept? Do they exactly understand the world?”
Well, the answer is NO. These and many more questions will keep arising. Our existing AI system has yet to arrive but the progress so far is tremendous. The groundbreaking applications of AI in different sectors are discussed in one of the articles in the AI Starter Series. There are still various ongoing research in different aspects of Artificial Intelligence and we look forward to more innovations, problem-solving solutions, and positive impacts.
The next article in the AI Starter Series is set to dismantle and simplify the types of Artificial Intelligence. So brace up and enjoy the ride!
