Artificial Intelligence – What It Is And How Is It Useful?

In this blog on ‘What is Artificial Intelligence‘, we’re going to talk about what Artificial Intelligence is and how it is useful for us. Let’s begin by looking at the following concepts:

• What is Artificial Intelligence?
• How did Artificial Intelligence come into existence?
• Artificial Intelligence on a conceptual level
• Types of Artificial Intelligence
• Use Cases

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Do you think the concept and existence of Artificial Intelligence is new? 

Well, when there was no internet in the past people were researching on Artificial Intelligence by reading books or checking out articles in the newspaper.

“What is Artificial Intelligence?” – Well, this key term sure did start a lot of curiosity back in the day!

People wanted to know if they could teach computers to learn like how a young child does. The concept here was to basically use trial and error to develop formal reasoning.

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Let’s Talk About How Artificial Intelligence Came Into Existence

The term “Artificial Intelligence” was actually coined way back in 1956 by John McCarthy, a professor at Dartmouth.

For years, it was thought that computers would never match the power of the human brain, but this has proven to not be the case.

Well, back then we did not have enough data and computation power, but now with Big Data coming into existence and with the advent of GPUs, Artificial Intelligence is possible.

Did you know that 90% of the world’s data has been generated in the past two years alone? Computers can make sense of all this information more quickly.

Very soon, we can see Artificial Intelligence being a little less artificial and a lot more intelligent.

Artificial Intelligence On A Conceptual Level

Artificial Intelligence – in my opinion, is the simulation of human intelligence done by machines programmed by us. The machines need to learn how to reason and do some self-correction as needed along the way.

Now that we have detailed algorithms that are taught in the Artificial Intelligence Course, helps one understand that Artificial Intelligence systems can make use of and can perform huge tasks faster and more efficiently.

Machine Learning and Deep Learning are just ways to achieve Artificial Intelligence.

A Survey On Artificial Intelligence
I read about a survey which was conducted among experts in 2012 which reported a 50% chance that Artificial Intelligence would be developed between 2040 and 2050, rising to 90% by 2075.

In contrast, some AI experts believe such projections are wildly optimistic given our limited understanding of the human brain and believe that Artificial Intelligence is still centuries away.

In this blog about “What is Artificial Intelligence” let’s now walk-through some of the types of Artificial Intelligence.

Types Of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be popularly categorized in two ways:

• Narrow AI
• Wide AI

Let’s talk about Narrow AI:

Narrow AI is an Artificial Intelligence System that is designed and trained for one particular task. Virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri use narrow AI.

Narrow AI is sometimes also referred to as ‘Weak AI’. However, that doesn’t mean that Narrow AI is inefficient or something of that sort.

On the contrary, it is extremely good at routine jobs, both physical and cognitive. It is Narrow AI that is threatening to replace many human jobs throughout the world.

However, my curiosity on “What is Artificial Intelligence” didn’t stop here. I was digging a little bit further.

Here’s when I found out more about Wide AI:

Wide AI is a system with cognitive abilities so that when the system is presented with an unfamiliar task, it is intelligent enough to find a solution.

Here the system is capable of having intelligent behavior across a variety of tasks – from driving a car to telling a joke.

The techniques aim at replicating and surpassing many (ideally all) capacities of human intelligence such as risk analysis and other cognitive processes.

Major Use Cases Of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is used almost everywhere today, in systems such as Mail spam filtering, Credit-Card fraud detection systems, Virtual Assistance and so on.

I believe there is no end or limitation to the number of applications we have with Artificial Intelligence to make our lives better!

Next up, in this “What is Artificial Intelligence” blog, let’s go through some of the use cases that I believe stand out.

Artificial Intelligence In Sports – A Computer System That Defeats A World Champion – Deep Blue

Well, in the late 90’s when the common man was still wondering – what is Artificial Intelligence? We had computers trained to play games and solve basic problems.

Deep Blue was a chess-playing computer developed by IBM.

It is known for being the first computer chess-playing system to win both a chess game and a chess match against a reigning world champion under regular time controls.

• Deep Blue won its first game against a world champion on 10 February 1996, when it defeated Garry Kasparov in game one of a six-game match.
• However, Deep Blue was then heavily upgraded and played Kasparov again in May 1997.
• Deep Blue became the first computer system to defeat a reigning world champion in a match under standard chess tournament time controls.

Today, the Artificial Intelligence available on the free chess games on your phones are exponentially faster and better than Deep Blue.

Artificial Intelligence For Rescue Missions

What we majorly require is the use of Artificial Intelligence and technology to ensure that help arrives faster. We can start by developing systems which help first responders find victims of earthquakes, floods, and any other natural disasters.

Normally, responders need to examine aerial footage to determine where people could be stranded. However, examining a vast number of photos and drone footage is very time and labor intensive.

This is a time critical process and it might very well be the difference between life and death for the victims.

An Artificial Intelligence system developed at Texas A&M University permits computer programmers to write basic algorithms that can examine extensive footage and find missing people in under two hours.

Artificial Intelligence For Wildlife Poaching Prevention

Hunting of Wildlife species and poaching is a global problem as it leads to extinction.

For example, the latest African census showed a 30% decline in elephant populations between 2007 and 2014. Wildlife conservation areas have been established to protect these species from poachers, and these areas are protected by park rangers. The Rangers, however, do not always have the resources to patrol the vast areas efficiently.

Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park uses Predictive modeling to predict poaching threat levels. Such models can be used to generate efficient and feasible patrol routes for the park rangers.

Artificial Intelligence For Smart Agriculture

In my opinion, Neural networks work well to provide smart agricultural solutions.

Everything ranging from complete monitoring of the soil and crop yield to providing predictive analytic models to track and predict various factors and variables that could affect future yields.

For example, the Berlin-based agricultural tech startup PEAT has developed a deep learning algorithm-based application called Plantix which can identify defects and nutrient deficiencies in the soil.

Their algorithms correlate particular foliage patterns with certain soil defects, plant pests and diseases.

Artificial Intelligence In Healthcare – Better Surgeries And Prosthetics 

Well, one day you’re wondering – ‘What is Artificial Intelligence’ and later robots are ready to perform surgical procedures on you? 

Robots today are machine learning-enabled tools that provide doctors with extended precision and control. These machines enable shortening the patients’ hospital stay, positively affecting the surgical experience and reducing medical costs all at once.

Similarly, mind-controlled robotic arms and brain chip implants have begun helping paralyzed patients regain mobility and sensations of touch.

Overall, Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence are helping improve patient experience on the whole.

Artificial Intelligence Tracking Wildlife Populations

It is amazing to see that applications like iNaturalist and eBirds collect data on the species encountered. This helps keep track of species populations, ecosystems and migration patterns.

As a result, these applications also have an important role in the better identification and protection of marine and freshwater ecosystems as well.

Do check out this link for more information on the blog about Artificial Intelligence with Deep Learning!

I personally believe that Artificial Intelligence will revolutionize all aspects of our daily life. It will be subtle enough and have a big impact on everything around us!

I hope you have enjoyed my post on what is Artificial Intelligence. If you have any questions, mention it in the comments section, I will reply ASAP.