Currently who doesn’t know about the self driving car launched by Tesla or the first humanoid robot Sophia? It was only possible due to Artificial intelligence (AI). From the minor activities like asking Alexa or Siri and even getting recommendations from Spotify or Netflix to one of the greatest achievement of auto driving cars, AI is involved in our daily life. So, why not first let’s understand what actually is AI and how it functions.
What is AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term artificial intelligence was coined in 1956, but AI has become more popular today thanks to increased data volumes, advanced algorithms, and improvements in computing power and storage.
Characteristics
The ideal characteristic of artificial intelligence is its ability to rationalize and take actions that have the best chance of achieving a specific goal.
Categories
Artificial intelligence generally falls under two broad categories:
- Narrow AI: Sometimes referred to as “Weak AI,” this kind of artificial intelligence operates within a limited context and is a simulation of human intelligence. Narrow AI is good at performing single task and even though they seem to be much intelligent, it has limitations and lie much below the basic human intelligence. A few examples of Narrow AI include: Google search, Image recognition software, Siri, Alexa and other personal assistants, Self-driving cars etc.
- Artificial General Intelligence (AGI): AGI, sometimes referred to as “Strong AI,” is a machine with general intelligence and, much like a human being, it can apply that intelligence to solve any problem. For example: Smart assistants, Disease mapping and prediction tools, Manufacturing and drone robots, Optimized, personalized healthcare treatment recommendations, Robo-advisors for stock trading, Spam filters on email, Social media monitoring tools for dangerous content or false news, Song or TV show recommendations from Spotify and Netflix.
While going through AI two terms automatically comes into the sphere Machine learning and Deep learning:
A subset of artificial intelligence is machine learning, which refers to the concept that computer programs can automatically learn from and adapt to new data without being assisted by humans.
Deep learning techniques enable this automatic learning through the absorption of huge amounts of unstructured data such as text, images, or video.
Challenges:
The overall research goal of artificial intelligence is to create technology that allows computers and machines to function in an intelligent manner. But from the very beginning artificial intelligence has been questioned regarding the fear that what will happen when machines will become more powerful than human beings and thus it could certainly become a threat to human life. We have noticed these fears and possibilities in few Indian movies also like Robot and Robot2.0.
Stephen Hawking said that “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it will take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.”
Hence, the biggest challenge is to proceed in artificial intelligence without creating a danger to society.
Final Thoughts
At present moment, even though a lot of researches are performed, giving spectacular results, a lot more is yet to be done in AI. Artificial intelligence has a wide scope available for more new inventions to be made and researches to be performed. But we need to do it in a proper way so that later on it turns out positive and not a means of destruction of society.