With the buzz about AI being everywhere, it’s important to know what exactly AI is and where it’s used so you can separate fact from fiction. If you’re wondering what AI is, don’t worry—you’re not alone!
Even tech companies are still trying to figure out what artificial intelligence means and what it can do, but this guide will help you understand the basics of artificial intelligence and its various applications in the modern world.

A brief history of Artificial Intelligence
In 1956, a group of scientists gathered at Dartmouth College to discuss the prospect of creating a machine that could think on its own. The group decided to call this machine artificial intelligence or AI.
The first time that the term was used was in John McCarthy’s paper A Proposal for Research on Artificial Intelligence. In his paper, McCarthy defined the goals of artificial intelligence research: building machines that can simulate intelligent human behavior.
AI research has grown exponentially since then. There are many different branches of AI: some focus on understanding how humans think and learn, while others build virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri.
Artificial General Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be defined as a branch of computer science that deals with intelligent behavior, capable of solving problems without being explicitly programmed. AIs are often categorized by the type of intelligence they exhibit: either narrow artificial intelligence or artificial general intelligence.
Artificial narrow intelligence is designed to perform specific tasks such as playing chess or driving a car. In contrast, artificial general intelligence possesses human-level abilities in all domains such as learning, reasoning, and self-correction. Currently, the greatest use for AI is in applications for medical diagnosis and stock trading through advancements in technology are rendering these areas obsolete.
The military has also found uses for AI in surveillance, reconnaissance, and logistics though there remains debate on whether this use should be allowed.
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Deep Learning
A form of machine learning that enables computers to identify patterns without being explicitly programmed to do so, deep learning allows machines to learn from large amounts of data. It has also been very successful in the field of image recognition. Deep learning algorithms can categorize images based on abstract features such as shapes, colors, textures, and patterns.
The beauty of deep learning algorithms is that they can be trained to recognize features in an image that even humans might not be consciously aware they’re looking for.
Neural Networks
An artificial neural network, or ANN, is a collection of many simple processing elements that are connected in such a way that the same pattern of connections found in natural neural networks (such as those inside the human brain) are emulated.
Artificial neural networks can be trained to do certain things, like recognize patterns or make decisions. One common use of ANNs is to create an expert system: an application that solves problems using reasoning based on knowledge supplied by a human expert.
Another common use of ANNs is in machine learning: the process by which computer software learns from data and experience to become progressively more effective at predicting outcomes without being explicitly programmed.
Machine Learning Algorithms
The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around since the 1950s, but our understanding of what it means to be intelligent has changed. We now know that intelligence is not just about having a cognitive ability to reason, but also about being able to learn from experience. Machine learning algorithms are computer systems that can improve their performance on a given task by learning from data.
They do this by detecting patterns in the data, making predictions based on them, updating the model with new observations, and then re-running the process. These algorithms can be broadly classified into supervised (when we provide feedback on the results) or unsupervised machine learning algorithms (when we don’t tell them how well they did).
Machine Vision
The best way to think about machine vision is that its software that can see things in an image. It does this by breaking the images down into small parts, measuring those parts, and making a guess at what they might be. This process happens very quickly and efficiently, even on mobile devices.
Machine vision has many applications including medical diagnostics (e.g., detecting cancer or other diseases), manufacturing (e.g., quality control or sorting parts), education (e.g., understanding diagrams or teaching students geometry), security (e.g., identifying an intruder or learning human behavior patterns), as well as many others such as utilities, mining, forestry management, weather forecasting, etc.).
Natural Language Processing
AI (artificial intelligence) is the science of making a machine intelligent. It can be anything, like robots or speech recognition software, but the most popular example of AI right now are virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant.
# 1 Robotics: Some people think that robotics will replace humans in factories because they are cheaper and more efficient than human workers. However, this isn’t likely to happen any time soon because robots don’t have the same dexterity as humans do, so they can’t perform as many tasks yet.
# 2 Speech Recognition: Speech recognition programs allow you to control your computer by voice commands instead of typing on a keyboard. The program listens to what you say and then translates your words into digital commands for your computer to perform those actions.
Robotics, Speech Recognition, Text Analysis, etc.
AI is the study of making machines capable of intelligent behavior. The term artificial intelligence comes from a conference in 1956 at Dartmouth College in which the computer scientist John McCarthy coined the term.
For many years, the main focus was on teaching computers to do tasks that we would consider to be very difficult for humans, like chess or proving mathematical proofs. There are many different types of artificial intelligence research. Research fields include robotics, speech recognition, text analysis, etc.