CodeSchool: Programming artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence for a time was a pipe dream that’s often seen in science fiction films and novels. There’s no way a human can create a machine that can think like a human. It’s within the realms of Frankenstein’s Monster more than anything else.
But today, A.I. is everywhere and has made a huge impact on so many lives. Siri alone can be asked questions through voice recognition and do tasks by simply commanding it verbally. People 20 years ago will gasp at the marvels achieved today.
But on the programming’s side, which CodeSchool is most concerned with, artificial intelligence is more complex than you might initially think.
So today, you’ll learn more about artificial intelligence and how it became the very technology found in every smart device.
The many uses of artificial intelligence
The concept of artificial intelligence is very broad. There are many different uses A.I. can be helpful at, but it all goes down to what the market needs with this technology that’s important for the companies who can make it.
For instance, the most popular use of artificial intelligence is robotics. There are so many robots today that can do basic cleaning, education for kids, and assistance in online purchases.
But why aren’t robots so popular and no big company is focusing on developing these as of the moment? The short answer is the customers don’t really need it. Artificial intelligence is very versatile at what it can do, and there are many applications for it.
Sometimes, the limitations of technology are the reason why over-the-top concepts have yet to be created because the technology simply isn’t advanced enough.
To understand how A.I. works, you should first know why it is only used for assistance as a commodity item first. The reason why companies utilized artificial intelligence as an assistance tool like chatbots and Apple’s Siri is that it’s what’s practical.
How does A.I. work?
Now that you know why A.I. is condensed into an assistant tool for most of the time, it becomes clearer to understand how it works.
Because A.I. vendors are trying to promote to their audiences, you simply see one component of A.I., and the most common one is virtual assistant A.I. technology.
Virtual assistant A.I. uses a complex set of algorithms that predicts the inputs of an end-user to make the experience with the machine much more intuitive and life-like. Virtual assistants have voice recognition technology that records the voices of the user.
Products like Siri and Alexa are the most popular virtual assistants in the market, and you’ll soon learn that these programs are heavily predicated on a type of artificial intelligence called machine learning.
The fundamental principles of artificial intelligence stemmed from machine learning, a branch in computer science that collects data or inputs from a user to imitate the way an actual human being learns and uses a computer.
Machine learning gradually makes the software capable of artificial intelligence improve the accuracy of imitating human intelligence until the technology becomes so efficient at doing its job.
In layman’s terms, A.I. mimics human intelligence to help people do tasks more efficiently without the need for heavy inputs in most computing jobs. It uses complex algorithms to predict certain behaviours and patterns a person does while using a computer.
A.I. programming
The programming side of A.I. like most programming applications require extensive use of algorithms and conditions. Since A.I. requires a foundation of specific hardware and software for coding and utilizing machine learning algorithms, the process is much different.
There are many languages to form an A.I. system, and there is no proprietary language software used to implement artificial intelligence in the mix unless a particular company develops one which Apple usually does.
Generally, artificial intelligence works by coding a lot of trained data and analyzing them for patterns and correlations to help predict future conditions. How this is applied is very similar to how chatbots can learn how to message you like a real person.
Three A.I. cognitive skills
There are three cognitive skills artificial intelligence must be efficient at to be considered a great technology.
Learning process
Artificial intelligence must learn how to acquire and process information or data by creating a subset of rules to translate these inputs into actionable information.
These subset of rules are the algorithms which is a stream of steps or instructions that lead to a particular result or outcome.
Reasoning process
Once the input is gathered, artificial intelligence must pick which algorithm to use to execute a certain command specific to the conditions set by the parameters of real-life occurrences.
Self-correction processes
Once a routine is made for specific algorithms to be used, A.I. then corrects any mistakes created initially to become more efficient at predicting tasks and algorithms. This way, artificial intelligence lives up to its name.
The pros and cons of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence continues to grow and be better. Technological advancements will make A.I. in the future very savvy and deeply coveted by many consumers.
The problem is, the time isn’t here yet in terms of a more robust system in A.I. that will take over the technology industry by storm and become the next industrial revolution.
Although there are still things to fine-tune to make the experience for everyone better, there are numerous benefits that it brings despite the lack of technology to make it capable of doing amazing things.
Pros
- Helps with jobs that require intricate attention to detail.
- Saves so much time.
- Gives consistent outcomes to projects.
- 24/7 availability.
Disadvantages
- It’s not affordable.
- Technology can still improve.
- Short of experts who can work on the technology.
- Can’t completely mimic human intelligence.
- Can only recognize what it can see, and therefore still requires heavy inputs.
How A.I. is applied in real life
There are many uses of artificial intelligence in real life that most people and companies have in their everyday life already.
Machine learning
As stated, artificial intelligence can be useful in predicting inputs done by users. Programmers use machine learning all the time to speed up their work and make things more efficient. Other applications in the real world include financial forecasting and eCommerce.
Automation
Factories are slowly adapting to robotics in manufacturing. This significantly lowers the cost of labour but increases the utility and maintenance costs as well. Regardless, the point of A.I. automation is to achieve consistent results that reduce stress from quality assurance.
Robotics
A.I. advanced so much from its early days that robotics became a worldwide phenomenon. Robotics can help with simple tasks at home to automation in industrial factories.
Self-driving cars
Teslas and most smart cars can drive without a person on the wheel. There are many algorithms used in this technology and it’s far from perfect, but the concept is proven and soon, cars can remotely drive anywhere.
Natural language processing
Amazon’s echo and most A.I. virtual assistants use NLP to comprehend human language. This is used to ask questions directly at the A.I. and have it answer your questions and do tasks for you.
Will A.I. take over the world?
Depending on how the question is raised, then yes, it will for the better. But when you consider movies like Terminator and having Skynet kill everyone is simply a ridiculous notion.
From a developer’s standpoint, it’s incredibly difficult for a computer to have feelings like a human being. The idea of A.I. robots conquering the world would have to entertain the possibility that robots can reason as we do on a human level.
Philosophy, psychology and even social civics are points to consider when talking about the gap between humans and machines. Even medical experts couldn’t fully comprehend the human mind.
But you can never say never in questions like this because just a couple of hundred years ago, people also scoffed at the idea of a machine that can fly, and they were very wrong.
So, you will never know until it’s there, but in this lifetime, it’s impossible to predict if it will really happen. But programming-wise, there needs to be a lot of work before making a replica of a human brain for technology to wage war against humanity.
Conclusion
A.I. technology is fascinating and can only move forward from here. There are many applications to real-life that artificial intelligence can be helpful, but relying on it too much is simply a hard task.
A.I. exists to give support to people who need to shave a few hours in their workload. Instead of manually coding every single digit of numbers and letters without committing any errors, you can simply ask A.I. to autocorrect it.
CodeSchool is fascinated with the technology, and hopefully, you’ll learn a thing or two so a better artificial intelligence software can exist in real life.