Everything You Need to Know About Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad ranging branch of computer science concern with building intelligent machines capable of executing tasks that typically require human intelligence. While AI is an interdisciplinary science with multiple approaches, advancements in machine learning and deep learning, in particular, are creating a paradigm shift in virtually every sector of the tech industry.

Artificial intelligence allows machines to model or even improve upon, the capabilities of the human mind. And from the development of self-driving cars to the proliferation of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, AI is increasingly becoming part of everyday life — and an area companies across every industry are investing in.

Understanding AI

Broadly speaking, artificially intelligent systems can perform tasks commonly associated with human cognitive functions — such as interpreting speech, playing games, and identifying patterns. They typically learn how to do so by processing massive amounts of data, looking for patterns to model in their own decision-making. In many cases, humans will supervise an AI’s learning process, reinforcing good decisions and discouraging bad ones. But some AI systems are designed to learn without supervision — for instance, by playing a video game repeatedly until they eventually figure out the rules and how to win.

Strong AI Vs. Weak AI

Intelligence is tricky to define, which is why AI experts typically distinguish between strong AI and weak AI.

Strong AI

Strong AI, also known as overall artificial intelligence, is a machine that can solve problems it’s never been trained to work on — much like a human can. This is the kind of AI we see in movies, like the robots from Westworld or the character Data. This type of AI doesn’t actually exist yet.

The creation of a machine with human level intelligence that can be applied to any mission is the Holy Grail for many AI investigators. Still, the quest for artificial general intelligence has been fraught with difficulty. And some believe intense AI research should be limited due to the potential risks of creating a powerful AI without appropriate guardrails.

In contrast to weak AI, strong AI represents a machine with a complete set of cognitive abilities — and an equally wide array of use cases — but time hasn’t eased the difficulty of achieving such a feat.

Weak AI

Weak AI, sometimes referred to as narrow AI or specialized AI, operates within a limited context and is a simulation of human intelligence applied to a narrowly defined problem (like driving a car, transcribing human speech, or curating content on a website).

It is often focused on performing a single task extremely well. While these machines may seem intelligent, they operate under far more constraints and limitations than even the most basic human intelligence.

How can I use AI?

AI comes in different forms that have become widely available in everyday life. The intelligent 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.

What are the Different Types of Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence can be divided into three widely accepted subcategories: narrow AI, general AI, and super AI.

What is Narrow AI?

Artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) is crucial to voice assistants, such as Siri, Alexa, and Google. 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 referr to as weak AI, as it doesn’t possess general intelligence. Still, 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.

What is 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.

What is Super AI?

Artificial superintelligence (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. It could lead to extraordinary progress and achievements in medicine, technology, and more.

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 will not replace all jobs. What seems to be sure is that AI will change the nature of work, with the only question being how quickly and how profoundly automation will alter the workplace.

However, artificial intelligence can’t run independently, and while many jobs with routine, repetitive data work might be automate. 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 poise to take over 500,000 jobs in the US inevitably. Even without considering the impact on couriers and taxi drivers