There is a lot of buzz around Artificial Intelligence at the moment and we are hearing the term AI now more frequently. But, what is AI?
For the majority of us, Artificial Intelligence or AI is a method of automation of our physical task with the help of a highly intelligent robot, that thinks and works like humans — which is not 100% true though. So here we are going to clear things up to you. In this article, we are going to articulate basic concepts of Artificial Intelligence — yes only just a brief introduction to AI — that includes :
- What is AI?
- What are the applications of AI?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of AI?
Yes, I know, this information is only a tip of the iceberg — as AI is a vast ocean with a lot of known and unknown theories. But here we only need a basic understanding of Artificial Intelligence and we will soon publish more posts related to this gargantuan technology.
In this present world, we are surrounded by machines. But now machines do things as the human wants which makes us the master of machines. The modern technology has given rise to the invention of robots who are programmed to do the work as we want. But can you imagine the world where the robots also start thinking like humans and take decisions and perform tasks based on its prior experiences and logical thinking? Yes, I am referring to the general known concept of Artificial Intelligence. So, first of all, let’s look up the definition of AI.
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What is AI?
To avoid confusion, we have to go back to the earliest and hence the purest definition of AI, from “The Father of AI” — John McCarthy itself.
John McCarthy coined the term “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) in 1956 at the Dartmouth Conference.
So, here is what McCarthy proposed quote,
“Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves.”
Little enigmatic, isn’t it? Here is the translation — AI is a machine with the ability to solve problems that are usually done by humans with our natural intelligence. A computer would demonstrate a form of intelligence when it learns to improve itself in solving these problems
So in short, Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science that deals with the development of intelligent devices or machines that work and react like humans.
Further digging deep, research associated with Artificial Intelligence is highly technical and specialized. The general problem of simulating intelligence include programming computers for certain attributes such as:
- Reasoning, problem-solving
- Knowledge representation
- Planning
- Learning to evolve or improve itself
- Natural language processing
- Perception
- Motion and manipulation of objects
- Social intelligence
- Creativity
In our future post, we will discuss these different problem-solving skills of AI machines.
Applications of AI:
Now, its the time for knowing applications of Artificial Intelligence in the modern world.
On this application of AI section, we are only pointing out some of the major AI effects — a few drops in the ocean.
I think applications of AI in Robotics is well-known. Other similar high-profile examples are — autonomous vehicles (such as drones and self-driving cars), search engines (such as Google search), online assistants (such as Siri), image recognition in photographs, spam filtering and targeting online advertisements.
When it comes to healthcare, the application of AI covers — Mining of medical records, antigen-antibody interactions, computerized medical images, comparing different treatment plans, etc.
AI effects in the publishing sector include — Proofreading the contents or Auto-posting of contents at regular intervals.
Some of the finance and economics applications of AI are — organize operations, to invest in the share markets and to guess the prospective growth or decline in the market, comparing the world events and predict the assets pricing based on that, maintain book-keeping and manage properties.
Advantages & Disadvantages of AI:
Every supreme technology or power comes with its advantages and disadvantages, so do AI. As we already told, Artificial Intelligence it the way of governing a computer to do task likes human — which means they think, react and functions like us. So it may be a boon or a bane to the future of human existence.
So here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence.
Advantages of AI:
- Reducing the chances of making errors and reaching higher accuracy
- Better and effective while doing repetitive tasks
- Increase efficiency — unlike humans machines don’t need repetitive breaks.
- Decision making cannot be influenced
- Can do a difficult expedition, that is dreadful to us, like — mining and other fuel exploration processes, investigating a new planet, etc.
- Ease to our day to day activity with some application in our smartphone like — Siri, Cortana, trips with the help of GPS, etc.
Disadvantages of AI:
- Cost of maintaining and repairing is very high
- Intensive use of AI in all fields will increase unemployment as there will be a lack of demand for human resource.
- AI won’t improve with experiences as human do. They will just be performing the programmed tasks.
- The same AI can also be used in a destructive way by creating mass destruction and making programs that may prove fatal to mankind.
- Ethically speaking emotions and intelligence are the gifts from God to humans so why make a replica of ourselves.
Humans have a long history of misusing everything whatever we have got whether it be the garden given by GOD to Adam & Eve, or the drugs made for treatment or the electricity. Whether it be anything we the humans proved that we have the potential to misuse anything or everything which we have got.
So what will happen with such a great invention as Artificial Intelligence?
Whenever I thought of “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI”, my thoughts automatically steer toward incredibly intelligent robots that will someday take over the world. It’s interesting to think of robots outside of the movies and imagination, and how they could help us more forward faster, and develop even better technologies for the future.