Author: Mansi Mishra
How often do you command Siri to take care of trivial matters on your iPhone? How wary are you of Google or Alexa when it comes to handling data on your personal devices? These are questions we discuss now more than ever, thanks to the emergence and consistency of artificial intelligence. Before we begin, however, let’s see what two of the most important words of the decade entail?
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?
In simple terms, you may define artificial intelligence as the way in which computers perform tasks that require human intelligence. It is the way of making a computer, a computer-controlled robot, or a software think ‘intelligently’.
HOW CAN INTELLIGENCE BE ARTIFICIAL?
At this point you may wonder: how do we personify a computer by making it intelligent? It turns out there are more than just a few ways of making a machine learn. The simplest of them is learning by trial and error. Take for example, a simple computer program for solving mate-in-one chess problems. It might try moves at random until mate is found. The program might then store the solution with the position so that the next time the computer encounters the same position it can recall the solution.
However, that’s not where we draw the limit of learning by trial and error. The computer or software may also be programmed to learn by detecting patterns and regularities. Take another example: a program that learns the past tense of regular English verbs by rote will not be able to produce the past tense of a word such as jump unless it previously had been presented with jumped, whereas a program that is able to generalize can learn the “add ed” rule and so form the past tense of jump based on experience with similar verbs.
With more advancement in the domain of artificial intelligence and the presence of improved technologies, the scope of learning for these machines has increased and they have become inclusive of additional features. Consider the case of Tesla’s cars of the future. These cars have features like self-driving and predictive capabilities. As a simpler example, we have Netflix which examines from a number of records to recommend movies based on your previous liking and reactions.
As of 2013, AI was about at the same intelligence level as a four-year-old and there have been lots of advances since then. There was a paper published this year about a robot that could rebuild itself, even after losing two of its six legs. The robot doesn’t know what’s broken, but notices that its performance has dropped. Then, using an algorithm based on trial and error, the robot can figure out what’s wrong and how to repair itself. Other examples of AI include devices for navigating a vehicle, trading stocks, playing chess etc.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HAS INCREASED THE SCOPE OF LEARNING FOR HUMANS
Artificial intelligence, in addition to just performing routine and complex tasks previously performed by humans, has also opened up many avenues to advance learning for humans.We have artificial intelligence with video lectures,discussion boards and coursework grading systems online which have become to be known as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).The world is now open for online learning platforms and they are going to deliver a big change in the way education is delivered. Artificial intelligence is all ready to transform the educational process and provide us a way for doing adaptive learning. Some popular MOOCs include Coursera and Udemy which provide a cornucopia of courses ranging from simple artwork to advance financial learning. Others such as Duolingo, which provides an interactive learning experience for some of the world’s most popular languages, have worked their way up the MOOC ladder.
While machines and computers are opening new doors for us, it is worth wondering if they are closing some windows for us as well. We can let that be a debate for another day. Meanwhile, researchers and marketers hope that using the label augmented intelligence instead of artificial intelligence, which has a more neutral connotation, will help people understand that machines will simply improved products and services, not replace the humans that use them.
TYPES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Something that has evolved to be as complex as AI can be categorized into different types on different bases. However, almost everywhere you can distinguish among AI on the basis of the level of human intervention. In that regard, AI can be categorized as either weak AI or strong AI.
Weak AI, also known as narrow AI, is an AI system that is designed and trained for a particular task. Virtual personal assistants, such as Apple's Siri, are a form of weak AI. Strong AI, also known as artificial general intelligence, is an AI system with generalized human cognitive abilities. Strong AIs can find solutions even without human interference.
Popular AI cloud offerings include Amazon AI services, IBM Watson Assistant, Microsoft Cognitive Services and Google AI services. Because a human selects what data should be used for training an AI program, the potential for human bias is inherent and must be monitored closely.
With the emergence of AI has also emerged Cognitive Learning, and while the two terms are heavily linked, they should not be confused for each other. The following illustration lays out the specific differences between the two.
HOW FAR HAVE WE REACHED WITH AI AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Despite continuing advances in computer processing speed and memory capacity, there are as yet no programs that can match human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge. We may be teaching machines to learn more about our behaviour to the extent that the technology of our time permits us, but to match the spontaneity and randomness in our actions, our capacity to feel and our knack for imagination and creative contributions in the workplace and elsewhere are some aspects where machines will have a lot of catching up to do for at least the foreseeable future, and maybe even beyond.
REFERENCES
1.9 Facts About Artificial Intelligence That Might Surprise You https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/01/31/9-facts-about-artificial-intell igence-that-might-s.aspx
2.Artificial Intelligence growth will cost US workforce a net 7% of jobs over next decade https://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/08/24/artificial-intelligence-growt h-will-cost-us-workforce-net-7-jobs-over-next-decade
3.What You Need To Know About Artificial Intelligence https://stopad.io/blog/artificial-intelligence-facts