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When someone mentions “artificial intelligence”(AI), what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Most of us imagine an army of human-like robots rebelling against humanity, while a few—folks from a more positive thinking community—are envisioning a bright future where AI serves them in all possible ways from walking a dog early in the morning when the weather is unpleasant to peeling tangerines at Christmas.
While the second scenario is certainly fun, it is a utopia per se. A reality with robots raising against people, however, is a much more probable event.
If you believe AI will soon become the greatest existential threat to humanity, we’ve got some good news for you. Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking share your point of view. (What a way to boost your self-esteem, right?)
Jokes aside, the global tech community no longer doubts that we’ll develop a human-like AI one day. Experts are still not certain how soon day X will come, but it is clear that we are moving towards it with increasing speed.
This means it is high time to finally understand what AI is all about. You just can’t step into 2018 uncertain about what artificial intelligence is and how it works. Let’s get down to it.
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? (In Plain English)
First things first. Before digging deeper into the topic of AI, let’s briefly discuss what artificial intelligence is and how it works.
The term “artificial intelligence” dates back to 1956 and belongs to a Stanford researcher John McCarthy, who coined the term and defined the key mission of AI as a sub-field of computer science.
Basically, artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a machine or a computer program to think and learn. The concept of AI is based on the idea of building machines capable of thinking, acting, and learning like humans.
While some people falsely consider AI a technology, the more accurate approach would be seeing it as a broad concept in which machines are able to deal with tasks in a way we would call intelligent or smart.
There are certain things a machine/computer program must be capable of to be considered AI.
First, it should be able to mimic human thought process and behavior. Second, it should act in a human-like way—intelligent, rational, and ethical.
Is AI the Same as Machine Learning?
Not really.
Although the two terms are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. Artificial intelligence is a broader concept, while machine learning is the most common application of AI.
We should understand machine learning as a current application of AI that is focused on development of computer programs that can access data and learn from it automatically, without human assistance or intervention. The entire machine learning concept is based on the assumption that we should give machines access to information and let them learn from it themselves.
Artificial intelligence, in its turn, is a bunch of technologies that includes machine learning and some other technologies like natural language processing, inference algorithms, neural networks, etc.
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Where Is AI Used?
Many people associate AI with the distant future. They incorrectly believe that despite all the buzz around artificial intelligence, the technology is not likely to become a part of their lives anytime soon. Little do they know how many aspects of their lives are already affected by AI.
Take Siri or Alexa—personal assistants that have already become the new normal for thousands of people around the globe. These and similar intelligent gadgets are able to recognize our speech (read: “understand what we want or need”), analyze the information they have access to, and provide an answer or solution. What is remarkable (and a little scary) about such assistants is that they continuously learn about their users until the point at which they are able to anticipate users’ needs.
Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music are some other touching points between AI and you. These services are capable of recommending music based on your interests. These apps monitor the choices you make, insert them into a learning algorithm, and suggest music you are most likely to enjoy. This particular use of AI is probably one of the simplest among all, but it does a good job helping us discover new songs and artists.
AI is making headway in areas you might least expect it. For example, when you come across short news stories on the Associated Press or Yahoo!, chances are good they were written by AI. The current state of artificial intelligence already allows for some basic robot writing. It might be not yet ready to compose in-depth articles or creative stories but does a pretty good job writing short and simple articles like sports recaps and financial summaries.
Other examples of artificial intelligence in use today include smart home devices like Google’s NEST, self-driving cars like those produced by Tesla, and online games like Alien: Isolation.
Here at StopAd, we rely on artificial intelligence, too.
Thanks to the AI we’ve developed, our adblocker is able to detect ads just like a human does. This means identifying and blocking ads regardless of their placement, size, type, and format. StopAd is even capable of identifying native advertising—ads designed to mimic the structure and layout of the website they appear on. Furthermore, we sometimes use AI to conduct our own investigations.
Will AI Take Over?
Some people claim that AI is still in its infancy. Others assure that we are only a few years away from AI gaining control over humanity. The truth, however, lies somewhere in between.
According to the most trustworthy forecasts out there, AI will outsmart humans at virtually everything in the following 45 years. Obviously, this won’t happen overnight. Industries will be falling under AI’s spell one-by-one.
Experts predict that within the next decade AI will outperform humans in relatively simple tasks such as translating languages, writing school essays, and driving trucks. More complicated tasks like writing a bestselling book or working as a surgeon, however, will take machines much more time to learn. AI is expected to master these two skills by 2049 and 2053 accordingly.
It is obviously too soon to talk about AI-powered creatures like those from Westworld or Ex Machina stealing our jobs or, worse yet, rising against humanity, but we are certainly moving in that direction. Meanwhile, top tech professionals and scientists are getting increasingly concerned about our future and encourage further research on the potential impact of AI.
It is a widespread point of view that one day AI will not only exceed human performance but also extend out of human control. With so many fearful articles out there, questions like “Is artificial intelligence safe?” or “is artificial intelligence bad for people?” should come as no surprise. AI is obviously exciting but at the same time is worth being cautious about.
Closing Thoughts
Given the innate advantage AI machines have over us humans (accuracy, speed, lack of bias), an AI rebellion scenario is something we should not completely dismiss. Time will show us whether AI is our greatest existential threat or a tech blessing that will improve our quality of life in many different ways.
So far, one thing remains perfectly clear: creating AI is one of the most remarkable events for humankind. In light of this, the smartest approach would be keeping an eye on how the technology evolves, taking advantage of the improvements it brings to our lives, and not getting too nervous at the thought of machine takeover.