“Everything we love about civilization is a product of intelligence, so amplifying our human intelligence with artificial intelligence has the potential of helping civilization flourish like never before – as long as we manage to keep the technology beneficial. “Max Tegmark, President of the Future of Life Institute.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as the replication of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and simulate their actions. The goals of artificial intelligence include reasoning, perception, and learning. Artificial Intelligence has the power to rationalize and perform actions that have the highest chance of meeting to a specific objective.
From SIRI to self-driving cars, artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing at a fast rate. While science fiction often portrays AI as robots with human-like characteristics, AI has the potential to comprehend anything from IBM’s Watson to Google’s search algorithms to autonomous weapons.
The term artificial intelligence came into being in 1956 but it has become more well-known today due to its advanced algorithms, improvements in computing storage and power and increased data volumes.
We are surrounded by artificial intelligence (AI) directly or indirectly. The tasks which were earlier reserved for humans are now been taken over by machines. Artificial intelligence would soon be the prominent transformative technology that would change human lives.
One of Britain’s pre-eminent scientists, Professor Stephen Hawking quoted to BBC – “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” He said that the primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed to date has proved a boon but he fears the consequences of making something that can surpass or match human-beings.
Today every field has a high demand for AI capabilities – mainly question answering systems that can be used for risk notification, legal assistance, medical research, and patent searches. AI performs high-volume, frequent, computerized tasks consistently and without fatigue. Artificial intelligence revolution has unimaginable potential, to transform wide-ranging areas that were unimaginable earlier. In short, in the coming years, AI would revolutionize every aspect of our lives.
Artificial Intelligence works by combining large amounts of data with fast, intelligent algorithms and iterative processing, letting the software to learn automatically from features or patterns in the data. A subfield of AI, cognitive computing strives for a usual, human-like interaction with machines.
Since the role of the data is now more important than earlier, it can create a competitive edge. If you have the best quality data in a competitive industry, even if everyone is applying the same techniques, the best data will always win.
Technologies that support Artificial Intelligence
- Machine Learning (ML) – It is an application of AI, focusing on the development of algorithms that can analyze data and make predictions. Machine learning (ML) in simple terms is a machine’s capability to learn from the experiences and examples it understands from the data it receives.
- Deep Learning – Deep learning originates from Machine learning, which principally focuses on evaluating more layers and layers of patterns of data as in the neural networks of a real human brain. The machines learn from negative and positive reinforcement of the jobs they carry out, which requires continuous processing and reinforcement to progress.
Neural Network – It is a type of (ML) machine learning which is formed of interconnected units (perceived as neurons) that processes information by relaying information between each unit and responding to external inputs. This process analyzes data multiple times to search associations and develop meaning from undefined data.
- Cognitive Computing – A subfield of AI, cognitive computing that strives for a human-like interaction (natural) with machines. Using cognitive computing and AI, the vital objective is for a machine to mimic human processes through the ability to interpret speech and images – and then revert logically in response.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP) – NLP is the capability of computers to understand, analyse, and generate human language, including speech. The second stage of natural language processing is natural language interaction, which allows human beings to communicate with computers using normal, day to day language to perform tasks. E.g. Skype Translator, which understands the speech of multiple languages in real-time to facilitate communication.
- Computer Vision – It is a technique which depends upon deep learning and pattern recognition to identify what’s in a video or picture. When machines can process, scrutinize and understand images, they can capture videos or images in real-time and understand their surroundings.
In addition to the above, there are several technologies which enable and support Artificial Intelligence:
- Graphical Processing Units or GPUs – They are important enablers to AI as they provide the massive computing power needed for iterative processing. Big data plus compute power is required for training neural networks.
- The Internet of Things (IoT) – It generates a huge amount of data from the devices connected, most of which are unanalyzed. The internet of things is anticipated to connect over 100 billion devices in the coming future.
- Advanced Algorithms – These are being developed and pooled in new ways to study more data quicker and at various levels. This intelligent processing is crucial to identify and predict rare events, optimizing unique scenarios and understand complex systems.
- Application Processing Interfaces (APIs) – Portable packages of code which help to add artificial intelligence functionality to software packages and products. They can add image recognition capabilities to home security systems and question and answer capabilities that describe data, create headlines and captions, or call out motivating patterns and insights in data.
A report generated by Gartner suggests that by 2020, AI would generate an estimated 2.3 million jobs. This figure was calculated by taking into account the 1.8 million jobs made simpler by automation.
How can you learn AI
Now that you know what AI is and the technologies that use AI, you might be intrigued to learn AI and make a career in it. If that’s the case, this is a great time since more and more organizations are implementing AI for various business processes. There are various ways of learning AI, but the best way of doing it is by opting for an AI training course. Once you complete the course, you will be well-versed with the nuances of AI and it will ensure that you have a great career in the AI industry.
The goal of Artificial Intelligence is to provide software that can reason on input and provide an explanation on output. Although AI is not a replacement for humans it will provide human-like interactions with software and offer decision support for specific tasks.
Great article!