What is “artificial” and what is “intelligence”?
Today, there is so much excitement and claims and the feeling of empowerment made by many using artificial intelligence (AI). Is it a tool, is it providing solutions, is it exploring avenues untrodden, or is it just hype created by those that have created the algorithms that anyone can become an expert, to line their own pockets? Are those using it lying about their own ability in the solutions they have offered or “created”?
So, what do we mean by AI? The term artificial, by its very definition, suggests that nothing is real, merely a simulation, if you will. It is a means of simulating intelligence, by using a machine, in this case a computer.
What, then, is intelligence? This is the realm of knowing and reasoning and understanding. Thus, the process of learning and understanding requires a vast database of information to acquire some degree of pattern recognition and the “ability” to make informed decisions based upon them, to provide an output that simulates creativity and autonomy.
When asked about AI, it is fair to say that most people would not know about the Turin test. This test examines if a machine (in this case the computer), when answering a series of questions, could pass off its responses as being those from a human, not a machine.
That was the basis of the definition of AI in the 1950s. This was later superseded by machine learning in the 1980s, wherein AI systems learned from historical data. This then brings us to the next generation, that of deep learning, in the 2010s, wherein machine learning models would mimic (as best they could) the human brain.
