When people hear about Artificial Intelligence the first image that pops in their mind is of robots who are capable of overtaking the human species at any given point in time.
This is because movies & fiction novels have fed this perception into the minds of people that AI works with robots, and they are capable of creating havoc on our planet by defeating humans. But the truth is very far from this perception.
Artificial intelligence is the process of simulation of human intelligence through machines that are programmed to think, observe and work like humans. Therefore, no doubt, AI has reduced the impact of humans in the digital world. This is because traditionally manual labor was inhibited for processing the systems. But now, that work has shifted to AI systems. They use cognitive processes like learning, reasoning, and self-correction to deliver the best outcome.
The term artificial intelligence may be applied to any machine which exhibits characteristics of the human mind like learning or problem-solving.
Characteristics:
The main feature of AI is to rationalize the concepts and take action based on the analysis, for achieving a specific goal.
- A greater characteristic of AI is machine learning. It enables the computer programs to automatically learn & adapt to new data without the help of humans.
- It is designed to make the tasks easy for humans to execute by working like them. The machines are wired using a cross-disciplinary approach which excels in every field. These fields include mathematics, computer science, psychology, linguistics, etc.
- Algorithms are the most basic part of AI systems. They are the codes that help to perform functions.
- When it comes to repetitive tasks it may be boring for humans, but the AI can perform such detail-oriented and huge tasks without any errors.
- It uses sophisticated machine learning algorithms to reach a conclusion.
- The future with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Categorization:
It could be classified into two different categories namely:
- Strong AI- this type of system carries on tasks that are complex and human-like. They are programmed in such a way where they can reach a complicated decision, solve a problem or tackle the solution without human intervention. Examples are: self-driving cars and hospital operating systems
- Weak AI- they are designed to implement simpler tasks and are usually single task-oriented.
Companies usually define 4 types of Artificial Intelligence systems based on the above two categories. They range from task-specific systems to sentiment systems.
1. Reactive machines- no memory, task-specific.
2. Limited memory- have a memory to use past experiences. In this way, they can make future decisions.
3. Theory of mind- social intelligence to understand emotions to infer human intentions and predict behavior.
4. Self-awareness- have a sense of self that gives them consciousness.
Considerations:
Being an overall accepted system of human intelligence, AI comes with both benefits & disadvantages.
The advantages of AI systems include:
- They are great at performing detail-oriented jobs and reducing the stress on mankind.
- They have reduced time for data-heavy tasks.
- They deliver consistent results with minimal error.
- The AI-powered virtual agents are always available to interact with
On the other hand, it comes with many disadvantages too:
- They are quite expensive in implementation & making
- Only those tech-savvy people who have expertise in machine learning can manufacture AI.
- Since AI is a human invention, there is only a limited supply of laborers.
- It lacks the inability to generalize one task from the other. It can only see what is shown.
Applications:
There are various ways through which AI can be created and brought into daily use. Either it could be built by techies who are software developers who have deep knowledge of human-machine interactions. Or it could be hosted by companies that provide the best artificial intelligence services.
Anyhow, AI is used in many operations and places.
- Finance- AI-based applications like Intuit Mint or TurboTax collect personal data and provide financial advice on its basis. Many AI systems like UpStox, Groww, and others provide the facility to trade stocks.
- Manufacturing- robots are now being incorporated into workflow through AI-powered systems. These robots can perform bigger tasks in industries and also smaller tasks like working with humans in warehouses. Also, digital marketing is an area that registers wide use of AI.
- Security- they are used to detect threats and anomalies in large organizations. They interpret the data and identify the malicious code to provide alerts to new and emerging attacks.
- Banking- chatbots are made available to the customers for bank services. The customers interact directly with the virtual robots called chatbots and perform transactions safely without human intervention. This has reduced the number of scams in the banking sector. Other features include decision-making for loans, setting credit limits, and looking out for investment opportunities.
- Healthcare- AI-powered systems are used to make faster diagnoses than humans. This helps in detecting diseases & malfunctions in the body. Another useful feature is the invention of online virtual health assistants & chatbots that help consumers to find medical information, schedule appointments, and understand other medical processes.
- Business- almost all the businesses worldwide run on the basis of AI-based systems. The algorithms are converted into CRM to get methods for serving the customers better. Besides this, there are many other ways in which AI helps in developing the business.
Potential plus Ethical use of AI:
Although AI has a wide functionality for business and development worldwide it does come with the chances of being misused too. After all, it is only what humans have created for humans. If there is no check or regularity on what is being fed into the system, it is potential of hijacking the entire humankind.
For better or for worse causes, the AI will only reinforce what it has already learned. It is only as smart as the data fed inside it. A human being selects what data goes inside the system. Thus, he needs to factor ethics into the real-time AI machines.
The AI provides roadblocks in the concept of explainability. It cannot unlearn or unprocess what it has already learned. That’s why decision-making is easy it but explaining those decisions is impossible.
There are many regulatory bodies across the world that monitor and keep a check on these AI-based systems. They limit the extent to which lenders can use deep learning algorithms, which are opaque and lack explainability.
However, making laws and regulations for AI is not easy because:
- AI constitutes different technologies that may be right for one company but wrong for another.
- The regulation may come at the cost of developing new systems
- There is rapid progress in the everyday methods on which AI is based. It is evolving swiftly. Thus, by the time a law could come into the picture, it would have become outdated for the concerned AI.
No matter how many laws emerge from the regulatory bodies it is not possible to track every system consistently. Because people with malicious intent could trace the loopholes from anywhere, decode them, and misuse them for harm. Ethics have to be programmed inside the human mind creating such wonderful concepts to ease his lifestyle.
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