What is artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence is the use of highly complex technology and coding interfaces to program machines with capabilities like automation and human imitation. These machines function with computer systems that require some degree of intelligence and the ability to compute with natural speed and accuracy.
For example, programming a mechanical robot to clean would be a form of artificial intelligence. There are many key characteristics that help these machines operate in the way they do, like visual perception, face and speech recognition, decision making and language translation. With proper programming, some AI machines can adapt and learn limitlessly.
Why do we need Artificial Intelligence?
The goal of Artificial intelligence is to create intelligent machines that can mimic human behavior. We need AI for today’s world to solve complex problems, make our lives more smoothly by automating the routine work, saving the manpower, and to perform many more other tasks.
How can I use AI?
AI comes in different forms that have become widely available in everyday life. The smart speakers on your mantle with Alexa or Google voice assistant built-in are two great examples of AI. Other good examples are popular AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, the new Bing Chat, and Google Bard.
When you ask ChatGPT for the capital of a country or you ask Alexa to give you an update on the weather, you’ll get responses that are the result of machine-learning algorithms.
Though these systems aren’t a replacement for human intelligence or social interaction, they have the ability to use their training to adapt and learn new skills for tasks that they weren’t explicitly programmed to perform.
How does AI differ from human intelligence?
AI differs from human intelligence in several key ways:
Origin and Construction:
- Human Intelligence: Human intelligence is a result of complex biological processes involving the brain, neurons, and genetic factors. It has evolved over millions of years.
- AI: Artificial intelligence is created by humans through programming computers and designing algorithms. It’s a product of engineering and technological advancements.
Learning and Knowledge Acquisition:
- Human Intelligence: Humans learn through sensory experiences, social interactions, and cognitive processes. They can acquire knowledge from a variety of sources and adapt it to different situations.
- AI: AI systems learn from data provided during training. They rely on large datasets to recognize patterns and make predictions. They don’t possess personal experiences or emotions to influence their learning.
Flexibility and Generalization:
- Human Intelligence: Humans can apply knowledge and skills across various domains, even those they haven’t directly encountered before. They exhibit a high degree of adaptability and generalization.
- AI: AI systems are often designed for specific tasks and may struggle to generalize to new situations or tasks outside their training data without additional training.
Emotions and Consciousness:
- Human Intelligence: Humans experience emotions, have consciousness, and self-awareness. Emotions influence their decision-making and interactions.
- AI: AI lacks emotions, consciousness, and self-awareness. It operates based on algorithms and data, without genuine emotional experiences.
Creativity and Innovation:
- Human Intelligence: Humans can generate novel ideas, create art, music, literature, and innovate in various fields. They can imagine and think beyond existing data.
- AI: AI can generate content based on learned patterns but lacks true creativity and the ability to invent or innovate beyond its training data.
Common Sense and Contextual Understanding:
- Human Intelligence: Humans possess common sense reasoning, contextual understanding, and the ability to interpret nuances in language and situations.
- AI: AI struggles with common sense reasoning and often lacks a deep understanding of context, leading to misinterpretations or errors.
Morality and Ethics:
- Human Intelligence: Humans have a moral compass and ethical considerations that guide their decisions and actions.
- AI: AI systems don’t have inherent morality. They make decisions based on algorithms and data, which can sometimes lead to ethically questionable outcomes.
Physical Abilities and Embodiment:
- Human Intelligence: Human intelligence is closely tied to physical embodiment, allowing humans to interact with and manipulate the world.
- AI: AI lacks physical presence and embodiment. It operates in digital spaces and interacts with the world through interfaces and sensors.
Intuition and Gut Feeling:
- Human Intelligence: Humans often make decisions based on intuition or gut feelings, drawing on subconscious processing.
- AI: AI lacks intuition and gut feelings. Its decisions are based on data-driven calculations and algorithms.
Which programming language is used for AI?
Below are the top five programming languages that are widely used for the development of Artificial Intelligence:
- Python
- Java
- Lisp
- R
- Prolog
Among the above five languages, Python is the most used language for AI development due to its simplicity and availability of lots of libraries, such as Numpy, Pandas, etc.
What are the different types of AI?
Artificial intelligence can be divided into three widely accepted subcategories: narrow AI, general AI, and super AI.
narrow AI
Artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) is crucial to voice assistants, such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. This category includes intelligent systems that have been designed or trained to carry out specific tasks or solve particular problems, without being explicitly designed to do so.
ANI might often be referred to as weak AI, as it doesn’t possess general intelligence, but some examples of the power of narrow AI include the above voice assistants, and also image-recognition systems, technologies that respond to simple customer service requests, and tools that flag inappropriate content online.
ChatGPT is an example of ANI, as it is programmed to perform a specific task, which is to generate text responses to the prompts it is given.
general AI
Artificial general intelligence (AGI), also known as strong AI, is still a hypothetical concept as it involves a machine understanding and performing vastly different tasks based on its accumulated experience. This type of intelligence is more on the level of human intellect, as AGI systems would be able to reason and think like a human.
Like a human, AGI would potentially be able to understand any intellectual task, think abstractly, learn from its experiences, and use that knowledge to solve new problems. Essentially, we’re talking about a system or machine capable of common sense, which is currently not achievable with any form of available AI.
Developing a system with its own consciousness is still, presumably, a fair way in the distance, but it is the ultimate goal in AI research.
super AI
Artificial super intelligence (ASI) is a system that wouldn’t only rock humankind to its core, but could also destroy it. If that sounds straight out of a science fiction novel, it’s because it kind of is: ASI is a system where the intelligence of a machine surpasses all forms of human intelligence, in all aspects, and outperforms humans in every function.
An intelligent system that can learn and continuously improve itself is still a hypothetical concept. However, it’s a system that, if applied effectively and ethically, could lead to extraordinary progress and achievements in medicine, technology, and more.
What are some recent examples of AI?
Overall, the most notable advancements in AI are the development and release of GPT 3.5 and GPT 4. But there have been many other revolutionary achievements in artificial intelligence — too many, in fact, to include all of them here.
Here are some of the most notable:
ChatGPT (and the GPTs)
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot capable of natural language generation, translation, and answering questions. Though it’s arguably the most popular AI tool, thanks to its widespread accessibility, OpenAI made significant waves in the world of artificial intelligence with the creation of GPTs 1, 2, and 3.
GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, and GPT-3 was the largest language model in existence at the time of its 2020 launch, with 175 billion parameters. The latest version, GPT-4, accessible through ChatGPT Plus or Bing Chat, has one trillion parameters.
Self-driving cars
Though the safety of self-driving cars is a top concern of potential users, the technology continues to advance and improve with breakthroughs in AI. These vehicles use machine-learning algorithms to combine data from sensors and cameras to perceive their surroundings and determine the best course of action.
Tesla’s autopilot feature in its electric vehicles is probably what most people think of when considering self-driving cars, but Waymo, from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, makes autonomous rides, like a taxi without a taxi driver, in San Francisco, CA, and Phoenix, AZ.
Cruise is another robotaxi service, and auto companies like Apple, Audi, GM, and Ford are also presumably working on self-driving vehicle technology.
Robotics
The achievements of Boston Dynamics stand out in the area of AI and robotics. Though we’re still a long way away from creating AI at the level of technology seen in the moive Terminator, watching Boston Dyanmics’ robots use AI to navigate and respond to different terrains is impressive.
Deep Mind
Google sister company DeepMind is an AI pioneer making strides toward the ultimate goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Though not there yet, the company initially made headlines in 2016 with AlphaGo, a system that beat a human professional Go player.
Since then, DeepMind has created a protein-folding prediction system, which can predict the complex 3D shapes of proteins, and it’s developed programs that can diagnose eye diseases as effectively as the top doctors around the world.
What is machine learning?
The biggest quality that sets AI aside from other computer science topics is the ability to easily automate tasks by employing machine learning, which lets computers learn from different experiences rather than being explicitly programmed to perform each task. This capability is what many refer to as AI, but machine learning is actually a subset of artificial intelligence.
Machine learning involves a system being trained on large amounts of data, so it can learn from mistakes, and recognize patterns in order to accurately make predictions and decisions, whether they’ve been exposed to the specific data or not.
Examples of machine learning include image and speech recognition, fraud protection, and more. One specific example is the image recognition system when users upload a photo to Facebook. The social media network can analyze the image and recognize faces, which leads to recommendations to tag different friends. With time and practice, the system hones this skill and learns to make more accurate recommendations.
What are the elements of machine learning?
Machine learning is a subset of AI and is generally split into two main categories: supervised, and unsupervised learning.
Supervised learning
This is a common technique for teaching AI systems by using many labelled examples that have been categorized by people. These machine-learning systems are fed huge amounts of data, which has been annotated to highlight the features of interest — you’re essentially teaching by example.
If you wanted to train a machine-learning model to recognize and differentiate images of circles and squares, you’d get started by gathering a large dataset of images of circles and squares in different contexts, such as a drawing of a planet for a circle, or a table for a square, for example, complete with labels for what each shape is.
The algorithm would then learn this labeled collection of images to distinguish the shapes and its characteristics, such as circles having no corners and squares having four equal sides. After it’s trained on the dataset of images, the system will be able to see a new image and determine what shape it finds.
Unsupervised learning
In contrast, unsupervised learning uses a different approach, where algorithms try to identify patterns in data, looking for similarities that can be used to categorize that data.
An example might be clustering together fruits that weigh a similar amount or cars with a similar engine size.
The algorithm isn’t set up in advance to pick out specific types of data; it simply looks for data with similarities that it can group, for example, grouping customers together based on shopping behavior to target them with personalized marketing campaigns.
Reinforcement learning
In reinforcement learning, the system attempts to maximize a reward based on its input data, basically going through a process of trial and error until it arrives at the best possible outcome.
Consider training a system to play a video game, where it can receive a positive reward if it gets a higher score and a negative reward for a low score. The system learns to analyze the game and make moves, and then learns solely from the rewards it receives, reaching the point of being able to play on its own and earn a high score without human intervention.
Reinforcement learning is also used in research, where it can help teach autonomous robots about the optimal way to behave in real-world environments.
What are large language models?
One of the most renowned types of AI right now are large language models (LLM). These models use unsupervised machine learning and are trained on massive amounts of text to learn how human language works. These texts include articles, books, websites, and more.
In the training process, LLMs process billions of words and phrases to learn patterns and relationships between them, making the models able to generate human-like answers to prompts.
The most popular LLM is GPT 3.5, on which ChatGPT is based, and the largest LLM is GPT-4. Bard uses LaMDA, a LLM developed by Google, which is the second-largest LLM.
What is deep learning?
Part of the machine-learning family, deep learning involves training artificial neural networks with three or more layers to perform different tasks. These neural networks are expanded into sprawling networks with a large number of deep layers that are trained using massive amounts of data.
Deep-learning models tend to have more than three layers, and can have hundreds of layers. It can use supervised or unsupervised learning or a combination of both in the training process.
Because deep-learning technology can learn to recognize complex patterns in data using AI, it is often used in natural language processing (NLP), speech recognition, and image recognition.
What are neural networks?
The success of machine learning relies on neural networks. These are mathematical models whose structure and functioning are loosely based on the connection between neurons in the human brain, mimicking the way they signal to one another.
Imagine a group of robots that are working together to solve a puzzle. Each one is programmed to recognize a different shape or color in the puzzle pieces. The robots combine their abilities to solve the puzzle together. A neural network is like the group of robots.
Neural networks can tweak internal parameters to change what they output. Each one is fed databases to learn what it should put out when presented with certain data during training.
They are made up of interconnected layers of algorithms that feed data into each other. Neural networks can be trained to carry out specific tasks by modifying the importance attributed to data as it passes between layers. During the training of these neural networks, the weights attached to data as it passes between layers will continue to be varied until the output from the neural network is very close to what is desired.
At that point, the network will have ‘learned’ how to carry out a particular task. The desired output could be anything from correctly labelling fruit in an image to predicting when an elevator might fail based on its sensor data.
What is conversational AI?
Conversational AI includes systems that are programmed to have conversations with a user: trained to listen (input), and respond (output) in a conversational manner. Conversational AI uses natural language processing to understand and respond in a natural way.
Some examples of conversational AI are chatbots like Google Bard, smart speakers with a voice assistant like Amazon Alexa, or virtual assistants on your smartphone like Siri.
Which AI services are available to use?
Here are some common examples of artificial intelligence available to the public, both free and for a fee:
- Voice assistants: Amazon Alexa sitting in that Echo device on your shelf or Apple’s Siri in your iPhone and Google Assistant all use natural language processing to understand and respond to your questions or commands.
- Chatbots: AI chatbots are another form of virtual assistants that can interact with people and, in some cases, hold human-like conversations, even mimicking empathy and concern.
- Language translation: Machine learning reaches far and wide, and services like Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, Amazon Translate, and ChatGPT all use it to translate text.
- Productivity: Microsoft 365 Copilot is a great example of a LLM used as an AI productivity tool, embedded within Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel, Teams, and more to automate tasks for you. Simply asking, ’email the team about the latest status on the project’ will trigger Copilot to automatically gather information from emails and documents to generate a text with what you asked.
- Image and video recognition: Different programs use AI to find information about the content in images and videos, such as the faces, text, and objects within them. Clarifai, which employs machine learning to organize unstructured data from sources, and Amazon Rekognition, an AWS service that lets users upload images to receive information, are two examples of this.
- Software development: Many developers have started using ChatGPT to write and debug code, but there are many other AI tools available to make a programmer’s job easier. One example, the AI pair programmer GitHub Copilot by OpenAI Codex, is a generative language model that can write code faster with less effort by autocompleting comments and code instantly.
- Building a business: Aside from an everyday user availing themselves of artificial intelligence around them, there are services offering AI tools for businesses, including OpenAI’s GPT-4 API (currently on waitlist) to built applications and services using the LLM; or Amazon Bedrock, a suite of cloud-based AI tools for developers.
How will AI change the world?
Artificial intelligence has the power to change the way we work, our health, how we consume media and get to work, our privacy, and more.
Consider the impact that certain AI systems can have on the world as a whole. People can ask a voice assistant on their phones to hail rides from autonomous cars to get them to work, where they can use AI tools to be more efficient than ever before.
Doctors and radiologists could make cancer diagnoses using fewer resources, spot genetic sequences related to diseases, and identify molecules that could lead to more effective medications, potentially saving countless lives.
Alternatively, it’s worth considering the disruption that could result from having neural networks that can create realistic images, such as Dall-E 2, Midjourney, and Bing; that can replicate someone’s voice or create deepfake videos using a person’s resemblance. These could threaten what photos, videos, or audios people can consider genuine.
Another ethical issue with AI concerns facial recognition and surveillance, and how this technology could be an intrusion on people’s privacy, with many experts looking to ban it altogether.
Will an AI steal your job?
The possibility of artificially intelligent systems replacing a considerable chunk of modern labor is a credible near-future possibility.
While commonplace artificial intelligence won’t replace all jobs, what seems to be certain is that AI will change the nature of work, with the only question being how rapidly and how profoundly automation will alter the workplace.
However, artificial intelligence can’t run on its own, and while many jobs with routine, repetitive data work might be automated, workers in other jobs can use tools like generative AI to become more productive and efficient.
There’s a broad range of opinions among AI experts about how quickly artificially intelligent systems will surpass human capabilities.
Fully autonomous self-driving vehicles aren’t a reality yet but, by some predictions, the self-driving trucking industry alone is poised to take over 500,000 jobs in the US inevitably, even without considering the impact on couriers and taxi drivers.
What are some misconceptions about AI?
There are lots of misconceptions about artificial intelligence since starting its evolution. Some of these misconceptions are given below:
- AI does not require humans: The first misconception about AI is that it does not require human. But in reality, each AI-based system is somewhere dependent on humans and will remain. Such as it requires human gathered data to learn about the data.
- AI is dangerous for humans: AI is not inherently dangerous for humans, and still, it has not reached the super AI or strong AI, which is more intelligent than humans. Any powerful technology cannot be harmful if it is not misused.
- AI has reached its peak stage: Still, we are so far away from the peak stage of the AI. It will take a very long journey to reach its peak.
- AI will take your job: It is one of the biggest confusions that AI will take most of the jobs, but in reality, it is giving us more opportunities for new jobs.
- AI is new technology: Although some people think that it is a new technology, this technology actually first thought in the year 1840 through an English newspaper.
What are the limitations of AI?
AI, while powerful and rapidly advancing, still has several limitations:
Lack of Common Sense: AI lacks true understanding and common sense reasoning that humans possess. It can make mistakes when faced with situations that require nuanced understanding.
Data Dependence: AI’s performance heavily relies on the quality and quantity of data it’s trained on. It may struggle with situations or data it hasn’t been exposed to during training.
Bias and Fairness: AI systems can inherit biases present in the training data, leading to unfair or biased decisions. This can have ethical and social implications.
Contextual Understanding: AI can have difficulty grasping context and may misinterpret information in situations that require a deep understanding of human emotions, sarcasm, or cultural nuances.
Creativity and Originality: While AI can generate content based on patterns it has learned, true creativity, and original thought remain challenging for AI systems.
Complex Decision Making: AI might struggle with complex decision-making involving competing values, moral dilemmas, or uncertain outcomes that require human judgment.
Lack of Emotional Intelligence: AI lacks emotional understanding and empathy, making it unsuitable for tasks that involve human emotions and relationships.
Security and Privacy Concerns: AI can be vulnerable to adversarial attacks and can inadvertently reveal sensitive information if not properly secured.
Interdisciplinary Understanding: AI systems are specialized and may lack a broad interdisciplinary understanding that humans possess.
Physical Limitations: AI is primarily software-based and lacks physical capabilities for tasks that require manual dexterity or mobility.
Unpredictability: Some AI systems, especially deep learning models, can be difficult to interpret, leading to unpredictable behavior in certain situations.
Human Oversight: Many AI systems require human oversight to ensure their decisions align with human values and ethics.
Learning from Limited Data: AI may struggle when learning from limited or incomplete data, as it might generalize inaccurately.
High Computational Demands: Training and running AI models can require significant computational resources, limiting accessibility for some applications.
What is the future of AI?
The future of AI holds numerous possibilities and potential developments across various domains. While it’s challenging to predict specific outcomes, here are some trends and directions that the field of AI might take:
Advancements in Deep Learning: Deep learning, a subset of AI, will likely continue to advance, enabling improvements in areas like natural language processing, computer vision, and speech recognition.
AI in Healthcare: AI could play a significant role in diagnosing diseases, drug discovery, personalized medicine, and remote patient monitoring, leading to more efficient and effective healthcare solutions.
Autonomous Systems: AI-driven autonomous vehicles, drones, and robots might become more prevalent in industries such as transportation, logistics, agriculture, and manufacturing.
Ethical AI and Regulation: As AI systems become more integrated into society, there will likely be increased focus on addressing issues of bias, fairness, transparency, and accountability. Governments and organizations may implement regulations to ensure ethical use of AI.
AI Augmentation: AI will continue to augment human capabilities, assisting professionals in fields like law, finance, research, and creative industries.
AI in Education: AI-powered personalized learning platforms could revolutionize education by adapting to individual student needs and offering more engaging and effective learning experiences.
AI and Sustainability: AI could contribute to addressing environmental and sustainability challenges by optimizing energy consumption, resource allocation, and environmental monitoring.
Natural Language Understanding: AI’s ability to understand and generate human language could advance to a level where it becomes indistinguishable from human communication, leading to better virtual assistants, translation services, and content generation.
AI for Mental Health: AI-driven tools might help in early detection and monitoring of mental health conditions, providing support and assistance to individuals in need.
AI in Entertainment and Creativity: AI-generated art, music, literature, and entertainment content could become more common, blurring the lines between human and machine creativity.
Explainable AI: Efforts to make AI systems more interpretable and explainable will likely continue to gain importance, especially in critical applications like healthcare and finance.
Collaborative AI: AI systems could work more seamlessly with humans in collaborative settings, enabling better teamwork and decision-making.
Quantum AI: The intersection of AI and quantum computing could lead to breakthroughs in solving complex problems that are currently beyond the capabilities of classical computers.
AI Hardware Innovations: Specialized hardware architectures optimized for AI workloads might emerge, enhancing the efficiency and speed of AI processing.
