The Origin Of Artificial Intelligence
By Vishakha Thakur
What’s the buzz word these days? Is it Artificial Intelligence? Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become the next big thing, from taking over jobs to its expanding use cases. The term that gained popularity recently, however, has existed for years.
In this blog, we will discover the origins of Artificial Intelligence.
What is Artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence is the ability of machines to do activities that require the intellect demonstrated by humans and animals. People frequently attribute this description to Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy, the field’s founders, who lived in the 1950s.
Artificial intelligence enables machines to understand and achieve specified goals. AI incorporates machine learning through deep learning. The former refers to machines that automatically learn from existing data without human intervention. Deep learning enables the machine to process massive volumes of unstructured data, including text, photos, and audio.
Any AI system must be able to perform some of the following tasks: observation, analytical ability, problem solving, and learning.
History of Artificial Intelligence
In 1956, Dartmouth College coined the phrase artificial intelligence. Marvin Minsky, a cognitive scientist, was enthusiastic about the technological future. From 1974 to 1980, government funding in the area decreased, causing a period known as “AI winter,” during which various critics questioned the field’s progress.
Concerns about Japanese competition, however, rekindled the fervor in the 1980s, when the British government resumed supporting the technology.
What are the many types of artificial intelligence?
There are three major categories of artificial intelligence. They are:
- Artificial Narrow Intelligence
- Artificial General Intelligence
- Artificial Super Intelligence
While artificial limited intelligence is pretty ubiquitous in society today, we are still a long way from artificial general intelligence. Artificial superintelligence belongs in the distant future, if ever.
Artificial Narrow Intelligence
The lowest and most prevalent degree of artificial intelligence is called ‘artificial narrow intelligence’. This AI uses machine learning algorithms to execute a single task without human intervention. For example, this form of AI powers popular virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. Self-driving automobiles also employ this technology.
Artificial General Intelligence
Often referred to as artificial strong intelligence, this type of AI can perform any task a human can, including resolving unforeseen problems. However, there is significant disagreement about the right definition of human intelligence; psychologists prefer a definition based on survival and adaptability, whereas computer scientists believe it should be characterised by the capacity to achieve goals.
Artificial Super Intelligence
This type of AI would outperform human intelligence and is now only a theoretical concept, something found exclusively in science fiction. While this is now outside the boundaries of possibility, given the tremendous improvement in AI learning, it is not impossible that a super-intelligent system will emerge sometime. This is a type of artificial intelligence that would outperform even the brightest human minds, incorporating cognitive skills and developing totally new thinking abilities.
Use Cases of AI
Artificial intelligence is critical to many industries’ digital and long-term evolution. This sustainable technology promotes digital advancement and is one of the most effective.
AI has practical applications in a wide range of industries, promoting efficiency, creativity, and decision-making. Some of these areas include:
- Health
- Finance
- Education
- Agriculture
- Logistics & Transport
- Energy
Let’s take a look at some of the pioneers in artificial intelligence:
Alan Turing:
Known as the founding father of theoretical computer science, this British mathematician and cryptanalyst penned the groundbreaking paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” in 1950, laying the foundation for artificial intelligence. Despite Turing’s death before his vision could fully materialize, his contributions still inspire and guide the development of A.I. today.
John McCarthy, a well-known computer scientist, coined the term “artificial intelligence.” In 1956, he co-founded the Dartmouth Workshop, widely acknowledged as the formal origin of artificial intelligence. According to his futuristic vision, machines would think and feel like humans. This would pave the way for symbolic AI, an early approach that focused on representing and altering information.
Marvin Minsky is a pioneer in artificial intelligence research. He was a founding member of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1959. He made significant contributions to subjects such as neural networks and robotics, and he claimed that a “commonsense reasoning” approach to AI will allow machines to understand and regulate their environment similarly to how people do.
Herbert Simon, a cognitive scientist, and economist, collaborated with Alan Newell and Minsky to develop the Logic Theorist, an early artificial intelligence software that validated symbolic logic theorems. He paved the way for cognitive science’s influence on AI research by emphasising the significance of understanding human cognitive processes in order to construct intelligent computers.
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