What is AI?

In this this article we will provide comprehensive explanation of AI,  and its history in detail. We will unravel the complexities of AI in a informative way. We believe that AI should be understood by everyone. So keep reading to explore the depths of AI with us in this blog.

Table of Content:

Introduction:

AI is simply an abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence. In addition, AI has to be “Artificial, Intelligence”. Let us first look into the individual meanings of these words. Artificial refers to things which occur in a not natural way and are made by man. By intelligence is meant understanding of facts, learning process, solving of problems, decision making in a certain situation.
 The term artificial intelligence refers to designing computers or computers systems as if they were human brains in thinking and learning process. It broadly encompasses several techniques, algorithms, and technologies designed to enable machines do work that requires thinking like humans. Such activities include problem-solving, comprehension of natural language, decision making, pattern recognition and learning from experience. AI does not constitute just one technology but is an interdisciplinary discipline that includes subjects like computer science, mathematics, neuroscience, cognitive science and so on. Its main thrust is to develop machines that are able to imitate, copy, and even surpass human intelligence capabilities.


History  of AI:

AI’s journey has been a long one stretching over many decades. Moreover, its contributions will be enhanced by additional studies on its effects and applications within the industry. The key milestone of AI are written below:

The Birth of AI (1940s-1950s):

  1.  Some scholars contend that AI was born in and after World War II, with the pioneers such as Alan Turing laying a foundation of computers that mimic human intelligence.
  2. The idea of “Turing Test” appeared in 1950, developed by Turing as a tool enabling to conclude on possible intelligence demonstration of machine on the part of humans comparable one.

Early Research of AI (1950s-1960s):

  1. The Darmouth workshop can be seen as a starting point for formal AI studies using the term artificial intelligence introduced in 1956.
  2.    Such researchers concentrated on symbolic AI, whereby rules and algorithms are used for representing information as well as performing simple reasoning tasks.

Optimism and Challenges of AI (1960s-1970s):

  1. Newell and Simon in 1963-1973 created the General Problem Solver (GPS). It could think through problems and find solutions.
  2. In 1966, another computer programed named Eliza was made. It could talk with people using words, showing that computers could talk to humans.
  3. In 1966-1973, a project called DENDRAL used computers to help chemists with chemistry. It was like a helper for them.
  4. In 1973: An AI winter began, People were too excited about what computers could do, but they didn’t do as much as expected. This made people lose interest and money in AI, this period known as “AI winter”.


Knowledge based systems and neural network(1980s-1990s):

  1. In 1980s Expert System gained prominence, using knowledge representation tp solve specific problems using rule-based approaches.
  2. In 1980, The MYCIN expert system developed, it could help diagnose medical issues.
  3. In 1986: The Hubble Space Telescope repair mission showcased AI’s role in planning complex tasks.

Rise of Machine learning (Late 1990s-Early 2000s):

  1. Machine learning became popular because due to making computer that learn from data.
  2. People started using tools like support vector machines (SVM), decisions tree, and clustering algorithm  a lot in AI projects. These tools helped computers become smarter at recognizing patterns and making decisions.

Deep learning and big data (2000s- 2010s):

  1. In 2000s, the availability of large dataset contributed to the success of machine learning algorithms.
  2. In 2010s, Deep learning (it is subset if AI) facilitated by powerful GPUs and massive datasets, achieved breakthroughs in image and speech recognition. Because of this computer got many things like helping doctors, managing money and making cars drive on their own.

AI in everyday life (2010s-Present):

  1. AI powered technologies like virtual assistants (Siri, Google Assistant), recommendation systems (Netflix. Amazon) became ubiquitous.
  2. In 2016, AlphaGo(a computer program developed that plays the board game Go, developed by Deepmind) defeated world champion Go player Lee Sedol, Showcasing AI’s prowess in complex board games.
  3. AI is integrated into various fields including healthcare, finance, autonomous vehicles. And more.
Throughout its history, AI has faces periods of hype, followed by periods of AI winter. However, advances in technology. Algorithms, and computational power have led to the gradual integration of AI into our daily life.

Conclusion:

AI is a field delicate to  creating artificial entities that can behave like humans. These artificial creations often referred to artificial humans, as design to replicate certain aspects of human intelligence, learning and problem solving. AI started during world war II, and since then, is has made significant progress. However, during this journey there were also periods of AI winter. But today, Ai has advanced such an extent that is deeply integrated into our daily lives.

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