What is artificial intelligence?
Currently, artificial intelligence is something very common to hear, but only a few people really know what it is, so in the following note we will try to explain a little about what it is and how it works.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the basis by which human intellectual processes are mimicked through the creation and application of algorithms generated in a dynamic computing environment. Or, simply put, AI is about making computers think and act like humans.
Artificial Intelligence manifests itself in various forms. Some examples are:
- Chat bots use AI to understand customer issues faster and provide more efficient answers
- Intelligent assistants use AI to analyze critical information from large free-text datasets to improve scheduling
- Recommendation engines can provide automated recommendations for TV programs based on users' viewing habits.
AI is more about thinking about processes, data analysis than any particular format or function. While AI shows images of highly functional human-like robots taking over the world, AI is not meant to replace humans. It is intended to significantly enhance human capabilities and their contribution. This makes it a valuable business asset.
Benefits of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence has become an umbrella term for applications that previously performed complex tasks requiring human intervention, such as communicating with customers online or playing chess. The term is often used interchangeably with subfields, including machine learning and deep learning. However, there are some differences.
For example, machine learning focuses on creating systems that learn or improve their performance based on the data it uses. It is important to note that while all machine learning is AI, not all AI is machine learning.
To take full advantage of AI, many companies are investing heavily in data science teams. As an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific and other methods to extract value from data, data science combines skills in areas such as statistics and computer science with the knowledge and skills to analyze data collected from multiple sources.
How is artificial intelligence software different from a computer program?
We have seen what AI is, but we still don't know how it works. A computer program is just a list of commands that tells the computer what to do. "Do this mathematical operation, write the result on the screen, play this sound," etc.
The programs have forks of the type "if this happens, do this and if that happens, do that". And they can also perform random actions, using random numbers. And many other things.
But the main feature of a program is that it is a set of commands that cover all possible options that the computer faces. Even if an error occurs, there is a part of the program that tells you: "if there is a failure, write the message: An error has occurred".
With a computer program, a machine does not think. It simply does exactly what it is told.
The great revolution of AI is that it does not receive orders to obtain a result. It is the AI that, with some input data, must manage to obtain the results.
As we have seen, an artificial intelligence attempts to mimic human thinking.