A Layman's Guide to Understanding Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has become a buzzword in recent years. To some, it is signifies the end of humanity, to others, it will help us leave and work better.

Personally, I have observed that many professionals and organizations still do not understand what this 'buzzword' is, and how it is going to reshape almost every part of our lives.

Over the next few weeks, I will take my time to explain AI in a very easy-to-understand-way, what it is, how it applies to different areas of our lives and how you should use it or build solutions around it, for the improvement of life and humanity.

I hope you enjoy it.

"Remember how you learned to drive a car. Did someone write down exactly what to do in all situations?

If you think you can do it, try to write step by step how to drive. You will find that it is virtually impossible. There are just too many cases to consider.

Instead, you learned by trying it out again and again and getting feedback on how you were doing, where to turn and when to stop, when to accelerate and when to use your brake, then readjusting and gaining mastery over time.

Similar to driving, a lot of our tasks as humans that need decisions, complex thinking, or intelligence have the same behavior.

That is where artificial intelligence comes in.

AI is a technology that can solve these kinds of problems.

You do not have to tell AI what to do every time. Instead, you have to give a lot of examples of what is right and what is wrong, how to handle the task and how not to handle it. Based on the scenarios, AI becomes capable of learning from it, just like a human.

When AI learns how to solve a problem, it can solve it much faster, again and again.

According to the father of Artificial Intelligence, John McCarthy, it is “The science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs”.

Scratch that….

Artificial means made or produced by human beings. Intelligence means the ability to acquire knowledge and skills to solve complex problems or make decisions with benefiting outcomes.

In layman's terms, Artificial Intelligence means creating man made systems or devices with the ability to acquire knowledge and skill to solve complex problems or make decisions for performing a task such that the stress of human effort is reduced.

Basically, artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a machine or a computer program to think and learn. The intelligence of machines, wherein they can be as intelligent to take decisions, recommend actions, solve problems and get important information for use.

Just like when you were learning to take decisions and solve problems while driving.

The concept of AI is based on building machines by studying how our brain thinks, and how humans learn, decide, and work while trying to solve a problem, and then using the outcomes of this study as a basis for developing intelligent software and systems.

For example, AI can now recognize voice, find what is in a picture, diagnose a disease, detect fraud, recommend movies, and self-direct cars, predict natural disasters because we have taught it how humans identify, learn, decide and execute these tasks.

AI achieves these tasks much faster and cheaper than humans.

For example, when you are trying to find out the weather report by engaging a speech recognition smart-assistant like Siri.

You: Hello, Siri…what is the weather report for today?

Siri: Today will be mostly sunny, with light showers predicted between 4pm and 7pm.

The AI function of the device Siri has learnt how humans understand, read and report the weather, so it can respond with an answer.

This is also AI at work.

The goal of AI development is to create systems which exhibit intelligent behavior, learn, demonstrate, explain, and advise its users.

Another goal is to Implement Human Intelligence in Machines ? Creating systems that understand, think, learn, and behave like humans."

PS: This short article is an excerpt from the 1st chapter of my mini-book "A Layman's Guide to Understanding Artificial Intelligence" which is available here https://www.amazon.com/Laymans-Guide-Understanding-Artificial-Intelligence-ebook/dp/B0CCDYJF87/ref=sr_1_1?crid=131P4XDKHPAIB&keywords=a+layman%27s+guide+to+understanding+artificial+intelligence+ojobo+agbo&qid=1706108982&sprefix=a+layman%27s+guide+to+understanding+artificial+intelligence+ojobo+agbo%2Caps%2C60&sr=8-1