Thoughtful Machines:

What is artificial intelligence?

Machines on the brain

Artificial intelligence (AI for short) is dominating conversations from the boardroom to the watercooler.

First founded as an academic discipline in the 1950s, by January 2016 the term "artificial intelligence" still didn't appear in the top 100 search terms on gartner.com, but by May 2017 the term ranked at No. 7 on that same list.

Furthermore, Gartner predicts by 2020, AI will be a top five investment priority for over 30 percent of CIOs.

So what is artificial intelligence, and how does it work?

What is AI?

Put simply, artificial intelligence is a broad term for technology that simulates human-like thinking and logic.
 
It can be broken down into countless categories, including deep learning, neuromorphic computing, real-time emotion analytics, natural language processing, and much more. But for the sake of immediate business value, we’re going to focus on AI that is making a significant difference today: Machine learning.

Machine learning in brief

Machine learning challenges the way we create software. Instead of traditionally programmed software that does a specific task, machine learning algorithms recognise patterns in, and then make predictions from, large sets of data. As these algorithms are exposed to more examples they continue to adjust their pattern recognition.
 
An example of this in everyday life is the way your smartphone suggests where you’re likely going when you get into the car and offers directions and an estimated time of arrival.

Machine learning in depth

WARNING - SLIGHTLY TECHNICAL!!! 
 
There are several types of machine learning algorithms which work in different ways, and they can be broken down into two main groups:
 
Supervised learning
Algorithms that, when told what typical inputs and outputs look like, can scan over data to identify or predict outputs given similar inputs it finds. In essence, show it what typical examples look like, and it will find you more of it (or tell you what one half is, when given the other half).

Unsupervised learning
Algorithms are pointed at structured data sets to find statistically significant patterns that suggest a relationship. In essence, simply point data at the algorithm, and it will try to find any pattern(s) within the sets.

Bridging the gap between human and machine

Artificial intelligence needs a way to interface with people, and that can come through facial recognition, a chat interface, a website, or something completely new. The beauty of machine learning algorithms is that they’re malleable; it only takes a few tweaks to feed the same learning into any customer-facing interface.

In part two This Time It’s Personal: AI is evolving the way we do business we’ll look at how AI is improving the way businesses understand and interact with customers.

 

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