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With the popularity of ChatGPT in recent times, there has been a huge surge in Artificial Intelligence across the globe. Most of the leading companies had already invested heavily in AI assuming it to be the future of Technology. Currently, AI is seen to be in the initial stages of its progression. And seems to showing off pretty impressive results and a promising future. What could be the best time then now to understand AI as a layman and embrace the future technology by being a witness of it?
So In today’s article, we will be understanding Artificial Intelligence, different types of AI, How it works, and Advantages & Disadvantages, everything in a simple and straightforward manner.
What is an Artificial Intelligence?
The human brain has several advanced capabilities like learning, reasoning, and problem-solving. With the help of these abilities, we not only make a decision but also improves our decision-making abilities as we go along.
While on the other side, traditional software is designed based on logic. These are predefined in the programs which is called an Algorithm. These logics are predefined in nature so they can be changed anytime and based on that the result of the program will also get changed. But there is no Intelligence involved. It is purely if and else cases based on inputs and data.
To harness the power of Human Intelligence into the software, Artificial Intelligence was developed. Artificial Intelligence simulates the Human mind and improves its decision-making capacity with past cases. They do this in various ways that we will be talking about later in this article.
Here’s an example of Artificial Intelligence
Imagine a case where Youtube wants to suggest videos for your home page. Initially, you were new and Youtube didn’t have much data about you, so it may show some standard suggestions. Later it notices that you prefer to hear Shawn Mendes songs, search more often for Thriller movies and skip political videos whenever it appears.
Now assuming these data points as AI input, Artificial Intelligence will suggest more relevant content on your homepage. That may include Shawn Mendes songs, Thriller movies, and related videos.
An Important point that needs to understand here is that you never told youtube that you like Shawn Mendes, it observed your behavior and made a conclusion. That’s where the intelligence comes into the picture.
How AI works?
Artificial Intelligence works on AI models. AI models is an algorithm or program that analyzes datasets to find patterns and make predictions of the results. Before they achieve any level of accuracy in their outcome, they are trained with millions of data sets through various techniques such as Machine Learning, Deep Learning, etc.
We are purposely not going much in-depth about these techniques as this article is intended for a layman. But just to give an overview of them
Machine Learning is a scope that focuses on training machines through various ML methods so much so that it becomes capable of making informed decisions based on the learning.
While Deep Learning is also a part of Machine Learning but with a more advanced mechanism than other ML methods. DL creates an artificial neural network just like the neural network in the human brain that can learn and make decisions on its own.
Types of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
There are many types of Artificial Intelligence but if we speak in a broader way, there are mostly three types of AI which are Weak AI, Strong AI, and Super AI.
Let’s Understand quickly one by one
Weak AI (Specialized AI): They are designed for a limited set of Tasks and cannot perform beyond it. Common examples of Weak AI would be Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana, Chatbots, AutoCorrect, Email spam filters, etc. They are the most commonly used AI that we use and experience in our daily lives.
Strong AI (Artificial General Intelligence): Unlike Weak AI, Strong AI has the same capability as a human brain. It can solve problems, learn, and take crucial decisions not limited to any specific tasks but also in general.
Unfortunately or Fortunately this is still theoretical and there is nothing such like this that exists in practice. Although there are few science fiction movies like Star Trek, Her, etc that show how an artificial intelligence person would look in the coming future.
Super AI: The last type of AI is Super AI which is expected to be way quicker than the human mind, can take complicated decisions wisely, and is better than the human. And may replace humans at various levels.
Although this is still a concept it can be a reality soon in the coming future.
Advantages of AI
No Human Error
Humans are prone to make errors but machines don’t. Thus with the use of AI, we can be sure we will be able to reduce human errors to a significant figure of zero. This is because AI is trained with a significant amount of dataset before being utilized in any real-life applications.
Guaranteed Availablity
Unlike Humans who have particular working hours during which they can attain work-related tasks, Machines are available almost every time 24×7. Yes, there could be a few exceptional scenarios like software updates and maintenance.
Faster working capabilities
There is no denying that machines can work faster than Humans. But with the arrival of AI, it will be able to perform even more complicated tasks and decision-making faster than Humans. This will offload the burden of tasks drastically for manual intervention and benefit the company.
Excel in performing Repetitive & Tedious work
Have you ever experienced that when the tasks become repetitive to you, you tend to make mistakes? Yes, this is a very common problem with humans. When the human mind realizes that tasks are very much similar to what they have done before the focus gets reduced unconsciously and maintaining the same alertness across all the tasks becomes a task.
But Machines has no such problem and are very good at doing all sort of tedious task. In fact, such machines are already being used at various scales in Industries. But with AI, these machines will be even more better and accurate.
AI for Risky Situations
Currently, there are many instances where human put their life at risk for humanity. This could be like diffusing a bomb, saving someone that is drowned in the water, protecting the national boundaries, saving life from natural calamities, and much more. With the development of such AI that is developed to be ready for Risky situations, we can save enormous human lives.
There are many more benefits and the list will continue to grow as technology evolves.
Unbiased Decisions
Humans are biased most of the time, consciously or unconsciously. They are aligned more toward things they like. But with Machines this would not be possible and the outcome decisions will always be unbiased. This could be an advantage for sure but definitely a disadvantage as well to some extent.
Disadvantages of AI
Just like the advantages, there could be ample of disadvantages and more can come on the list as it evolves and we face those problems. But for now, these are some of the disadvantages that we see today of AI.
High Development Cost
There are many robots available today based on AI that have already absorbed billions of Investments. Still, it is nowhere as close to Human Intelligence. With being optimistic we should also be sure that it will require a large amount of Investment in the coming future and later as it keeps evolving.
Losing Jobs to Robots
This has always been the most debatable topic about AI. And we believe it is likely to happen otherwise why would any company invest so much money to develop it? But there could also be a chance where we might lose some jobs but a scope of new jobs will open for the human. For now, we don’t know anything about it but as a futuristic people, we should be open to change.
The more we are open, the lesser we will be affected. Coincidently it’s a phenomenon of life as well.
No Emotions
Humans are emotional creatures and several times our decisions are also based on emotions. Emotional decisions could either be good or bad. But sometimes emotions play a very critical role and cannot be ignored. That’s where we see the disadvantage of AI Machines. Machines don’t have any emotions and their decisions will be purely based on facts and documents.
Will make you Dump
Did you know if you don’t utilize your mind, you will lose its capabilities? Since everything will be automated, we will become lazy and dangerously technology dependent which could potentially wipe out our intelligence if we didn’t use it elsewhere. We have covered a separate article on How Google is making us Dump.
Hope you liked this article. Don’t forget to check out Tech Space for more such interesting topics
