A Beginner’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence
There’s no denying the tumult, horrors and massive loss of life during World War II. But, as is often the case, from this environment of desperation and hardship sprang many technological advances. Alan Turing, helped lead an unprecedented cadre of mathematicians and logicians to success in building a special purpose computer which could break the secret communication codes of their military enemies. Turing emerged from this period inspired to consider the future possibilities of more generalized computing devices and where that could lead society and how those machines would evolve. Turing wrote a paper in 1950 titled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” which he opened with the statement: “I propose to consider the question; can machines think?”. It was a ground-breaking paper not least because it contained a test which Turing originally called “The Imitation Game” but which later became more popularly known as “The Turing Test”. The Turing Test laid out, for the first time, a foundation for how we might consider a machine – a computer – to be “intelligent”. The main premise of the test is that if we cannot tell if we are speaking to a machine or a human – or if we guess and guess wrongly – then, put simply, that machine is probably best considered ‘intelligent’. It’s a simple definition but that simplicity belies the genius of it. How have things changed since Alan Turing’s time? Computing technology- and along with it artificial intelligence – has grown exponentially since Turing’s time. Yet we are still only standing on the first rung of a very long ladder. Picture this; a machine that can organize your portable home library alphabetically, just as you’d like. Or a machine that could prepare a customized daily schedule for everyone at the office. Makes your life/job easier, doesn’t it? These are the products of artificial intelligence. But why is it termed “artificial intelligence”? Well, these machines are designed using complex algorithms and mathematical functions that aim to incorporate human-like intelligence, to make decisions and solve problems as we do. However, AI may not be as obvious as in the above examples. In fact, AIs have various applications in almost every area of life. You can find AI in smartphones, cars, wrangling our social media feeds, playing (and beating us) in games, automating banking decisions and anti-fraud or money-laundering activities, widespread private and government surveillance, even performing roles in our vehicles to enhance safety and usability. The real question, however, is what does an AI do at its core? What makes a product or machine artificially intelligent? Three basic components make up this answer. We’ll describe them using this illustration. Let’s assume we build our robot in a lab and transport it to a park. Regardless of the difference in lighting and landscape between our lab and the park, the robot must perform as expected. This ability to adapt quickly to a new situation is called “generalized learning.” The robot then gets to a crossroad; one, muddy and the other paved. Here, it must determine which path to take based on the circumstances. This portrays the robot’s “decision-making” ability. After a few meters on the paved road, the robot approaches a body of water it cannot swim through. Using a plank added to the robot as input, it can cross to […]
