Artificial Intelligence 101 in 2min

Have you ever browsed Netflix movie suggestions or told Alexa to order some pizza for dinner? If so, you were probably interacting with Artificial Intelligence (AI) more than you realize. And that is the point. AI is designed so you don't realize there is a computer calling the shots.

AI is a field of computer science that makes machines mirror human intelligence. So it's not only programming a computer to drive a car by obeying traffic rules, but it is when that program also learns and adapts the vehicle speed and distance to other vehicles by taking into consideration the surrounding environment.

This technology might seem complex but it is not necessarily new. The term Artificial Intelligence was first introduced by professor John McCarthy more than 60 years ago with his proposal to figure out how to make machines "use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves." McCarthy defined seven areas of AI:

1. Simulating higher functions of the human brain 
2. Programming a computer to use general language 
3. Arranging hypothetical neurons in a manner enabling them to form concepts
4. A way to determine and measure problem complexity
5. Self-improvement  
6. Abstraction 
7. Randomness and creativity

As the volume of data created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide has been exponentially growing, and since computers can actually make sense of all this information thanks to advances in processing speeds, AI is becoming less and less artificial and a lot more intelligent.

AI manifests itself in many different ways message bots being one of them. Message bots are text-based and can be incredibly powerful if designed correctly, nevertheless they have limitations. Ask a message bot for instructions/ directions that were not taken into consideration by the message bot’s programmer and will get you nothing valuable in return.

Natural Language Processing makes bots more sophisticated. When you ask Siri or Alexa where the closest gas station is, they are really just translating your voice into text, feeding it to a search engine, and then reading the answer back to you. 

Machine Learning applications, probably the most exciting area of AI, just like humans retain information and become smarter by analyzing thousands of examples to build an algorithm. The algorithm is then tweaked based on if it achieves its goal. Over time and after several tweaks the program actually gets smarter. 

Unlike humans, these applications are not susceptible to short-term memory loss, information overload, sleep deprivation, nor distractions however, and taking into consideration Elon Musk’s words: ”AI is far more dangerous than nukes”, the pressing question is how will AI affect our outlook? Will it make our work obsolete? Just like the Industrial Revolution will it be human vs machine? Or will AI get on with repetitive tasks and leave more time for us to enjoy the perks of being human?