research and draft prepared by Rowena Enojo
article written by Wayne Brown
The Abstract as an introduction
Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is a multi-disciplinary field whose goal is to automate activities that presently require human intelligence. Recent successes in A.I. include computerized medical diagnosticians and systems that automatically customize hardware to particular user requirements.
The major problem areas confronted in A.I. usually are reasoning and communication, however, it can be cured through perception by using sensory input. Manipulation is concerned with articulating appendages (e.g. mechanical arms, locomotion devices) in order to effect a desired state in the physical world.
Reasoning is concerned with higher level cognitive functions such as planning, drawing inferential conclusions from a world model, diagnosing, designing, etc.
Communication treats the problem, understanding and conveying of information through the use of language.
Finally, Learning treats the problem of automatically improving system performance over time based on the system’s experience. Many important technical concepts have arisen from A.I. that unify these diverse problem areas and that form the foundation of the scientific discipline. Generally, A.I. systems function based on a Knowledge Base of Facts and Rules that characterize the system’s domain of proficiency.
The elements of a knowledge base consist of independently valid (or at least plausible) chunks of information. It is used in order to solve itemized dilemmas. This also targets items that may help in getting the goals of the organization. Moreover, it is a set of ideas that are used as relevant items in reaching the organizations goals. Heuristics provide the A.I. system with a mechanism for focusing its attention and controlling its searching processes.
The necessarily adaptive organization of A.I. systems yields the requirement for A.I. computational architectures. All knowledge utilized by system must be represented within such an architecture. The acquisition and encoding of real world knowledge into A.I. architecture comprises the sub-field of Knowledge Engineering.
Some individuals are highly intelligent, even to the level of machine intelligence. They may be considered as risks to mankind; however, we may ignore the same, as these individuals only exist in science fiction.
A little background before we dig much deeper:
The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision making and translation between languages.
A further step towards the development of artificial intelligence was the creation of The Logic Theorist. Designed by Allen Newell (researcher), Herbert Simon (economist) and Cliff Shaw (programmer) in 1955 it may be considered the first A.I. program.
The person who finally coined the term artificial intelligence and is regarded as the father of A.I. is John McCarthy. An American computer scientist pioneer and inventor who also played a seminal role in defining the field devoted to the development of intelligent machines.
In 1956, he organized a conference “The Dartmouth summer research project” on artificial intelligence in Hanover, New Hampshire to draw the talent and expertise of others interested in machine intelligence for a moth of brainstorming. In the following years, A.I. research centers began forming at the Carnegie Mellon University as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The overall research goal of artificial intelligence is to create technology that allows computer and machines to function in an intelligent manner. The general problem of simulating (or creating) intelligence has been broken down into sub-problems.
McCarthy developed Lisp, the most popular and still favored programming language for A.I. research.
So let us begin this story:
A.I. refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like human and mimic their actions. The term may also be applied to any machine that exhibits traits associated with a human mind such as learning and problem solving. The ideal characteristic of artificial intelligence is its ability to rationalize and take actions that have the best chance of achieving a specific goal.
Intelligence is not as common as people may think. Intelligence is something that comes from the inner portion of the human brain wherein hypothalamus is a part of it. It is a vehicle that may drive other parts of the body as it can be considered as the most powerful source. Artificial intelligence despite its advances can still be incomparable with human intelligence as artificial intelligence is a product of human intelligence. On the other hand, artificial intelligence created a great impact in the field of technology; it may include opportunities for work and advanced technology such as robotic and software trends.
Currently, A.I. is used in fields or things like retail, shopping and fashion, security and surveillance, sports analytics, manufacturing and production.
Artificial intelligence is creating a big impact now and will continue to do so in the future not only in business sector and technology but also with the lives of human beings. Artificial intelligence has been the main source of technologies nowadays as well as other innovations just like robotics. In this regard, artificial intelligence has been categorized as one of the best creations by human beings despite the fact that it still has many field having bee unexplored. With the unexplored fields and potentials of artificial intelligence, it created many possible impact in many industries in the future especially in evolution of technologies.
A.I. in future created cognitive system as innovation just like in robotics wherein there is interaction among human experts.
It can also be gleaned that the system can see people work with valuable intelligence and explain things that cannot be easily explained articulately. These innovations using artificial intelligence can be seen in many technologies today like in smart cars, gadgets and satellites.
A.I. can be used in many ways and even in medical monitoring devices and alarm units. In cognitive artificial intelligence, it was even used in smart medical devices attached to body like smart medical watches and glucose monitoring.
Even in some medical operations like spinal alignment the limbs can be easily connected. This robotics using artificial intelligence connects with human intelligence harmoniously – a clear collaboration between the two. The cognitive artificial intelligence is categorized as one of the best innovations of artificial intelligence.
Cognitive artificial intelligence
This has been a symbol of artificial intelligence which fully utilized technology. Artificial intelligence created effects such as sustainability and other issues not to mention the effects in infrastructures and environment.
There are different types of artificial intelligence such as reactive machines, limited memory, theory of mind, self-awareness, artificial narrow intelligence, artificial general intelligence, and artificial super intelligence. These types of artificial intelligence simulate human mind’s abilities and skills.
Limited memories are machines that, in addition to having the capabilities of purely reactive machines, are also capable of learning from historical data to make decisions. Nearly all existing applications that we know of come under this category of A.I. All present-day AI systems, such as those using deep learning, are trained by large volumes of training data that they store in their memory to form a reference model for solving future problems.
For instance, an image recognition AI is trained using thousands of pictures and their label to teach it to name objects it scans. When an image is scanned by such an AI, it uses training images as references to understand the contents of the image presented to it, and based on its “learning experience” it labels new images with increasing accuracy. Almost all present day AI applications, from chat bots and virtual assistants to self-driving vehicles are all driven by limited memory AI.
“Theory of mind” is the next level of AI systems
Researchers are currently engaged in innovating. A “theory of mind” level AI will be able to better understand the entities it is interacting with by discerning their needs, emotions, beliefs and thought processes. While artificial emotional intelligence is already a budding industry and an area of interest for leading AI researchers, achieving theory of mind level of AI will require development in other branches of AI as well.
Self-awareness is the final stage of AI development which currently exists only hypothetically. Self-aware AI which, self-explanatory, is an AI that has evolved to be so akin to the human brain that it has developed self-awareness.
Creating this type of AI, which is decades, if not centuries away from materializing, is and will always be the ultimate objective of al AI research. This type of AI will not only be able to understand and evoke emotions in those it interacts with, but also have emotions, needs, beliefs and potentially desires of its own.
And this is the type of AI that doomsayers of the technology are wary of. Although the development of self-aware can potentially boost our progress as a civilization by leaps and bounds, it can also potentially lead to catastrophe.
This is because once self-aware, the AI would be capable of having ideas like self-preservation which may directly or indirectly spell the end for humanity, as such an entity could easily outmaneuver the intellect of human being and plot elaborate schemes to take over humanity.
The alternate system of classification that is more generally used in tech parlance is the classification of the technology into Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Super intelligence (ASI).
Artificial Narrow Intelligence represents all the existing AI
This includes even the most complicated and capable AI that has ever been created to date. Artificial narrow intelligence refers to AI systems that can only perform a specific task autonomously using human-like capabilities. These machines can do nothing more than what they are programmed to do, and thus have a very limit or narrow range of competencies. According to the aforementioned system of classification, these systems correspond to all the reactive and limited memory AI. Even the most complex AI that uses machine learning and deep learning to teach itself falls under ANI.
Artificial General Intelligence is the ability of an AI agent to learn, perceive, understand and function completely like a human being. These systems will be able to independently build multiple competencies and form connections and generalizations across domains, massively cutting down on time needed for training. This will make AI systems just as capable as humans by replicating our multi-functional capabilities.
Artificial Super intelligence will probably mark the pinnacle of AI research, as AGI will become by far the most capable forms of intelligence on earth. ASI, in addition to replicated the multi-faceted intelligence of human beings, will be exceedingly better at everything they do because of overwhelmingly greater memory, faster data processing and analysis, and decision-making capabilities. The development of AGI and ASI will lead to a scenario most popularly referred to as the singularity.
And while the potential of having such powerful machines at our disposal seems appealing, these machines may also threaten our existence or at the very least, our way of life. At this point, it is hard to picture the state of our world when more advanced types of AI come into being. However, it is clear that thee is a long way to get there as the current state of AI development compared to where it is projected to go is still in its rudimentary stage.
For those holding a negative outlook for the future of AI, this means that now is a little too soon to be worrying about the singularity, and there’s still time to ensure AI safety – although with each passing year we move closer in that direction. And for those who are optimistic about the future of AI, the fact that we’ve merely scratched the surface of AI development makes the future even more exciting.
And so let’s conclude this initial discussion…
Different people think of A.I. differently. A.I. has its roots in almost every discipline. A.I. in its current state is definitely an efficient tool in the software industry. It allows for a new way of thinking, coding and provides logic for a lot of engineering problems.
Artificial intelligence will change engineering and every designing field drastically, the designing techniques and methods that we know today will no longer be in use in few decades. A.I. technology will change with each passing day, so its possibilities and it has unimaginable potential in every field.
Today, artificial intelligence can be categorized as center of many business as it is the mother of modern models on technology such as computer programs in the digital world.
Despite the advances artificial intelligence have introduced, it can still be gleaned that programmed computers cannot be compared to a mind today. Computers cannot yet simulate a human mind.
Artificial intelligence on the other hand is the brain child of human intelligence. Artificial intelligence is incomparable with human intelligence as there are some things that are genuinely attributed only to human intelligence such as human behaviors and reactions in varying events and situations. Now, the challenge is, will artificial intelligence be somehow comparable to human intelligence in the future having the same reactions as humans or will the humans maintain a level above artificial intelligence and robots?
References:
- History of A.I.
- 7 Types of Artificial Intelligence
- Understanding Artificial Intelligence
- Artificial Intelligence:past,present,future
- Future of A.I.-less artificial,more intelligent
- A brief introduction to artificial intelligence
- The future of artificial intelligence
- Understanding the types of artificial intelligence
Category: Tech 4 Execs
This is the first article in a series that will look at the various developments in technology. We hope you have enjoyed and gained a little insight to the world of AI.
NEXT UP WE EXPLORE MACHINE LEARNING
Bye for now, Wayne
