What is Artificial Intelligence ?

Artificial Intelligence, commonly referred to as A.I is a branch of Computer Science that is focused on making intelligent (smart) machines and programs. A.I can also be defined as a technology that makes programs and machines intelligent by imitating human behaviours

Examples of areas in which AI is applied include:

  • Healthcare : Apps that can diagnose patients based on symptoms, programs that aid doctors in analyzing MRI images.
  • Transport : Self driving cars such as Teslas, Programs that aid drivers in navigation by picking the best route.
  • Games : Intelligent agents in games such as enemies, programs that beat the world best board game players
  • Agriculture : From robots that reap ripe fruits to drones that plant trees. AI is changing Agriculture!
  • Robotics : Sofia the A.I Robot, not forgetting the dozens of robots in the agriculture sector.

Branches of AI

These are the main branches of AI and I intend to make specific tutorials for each of the branches below:
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) : This includes analyzing text and sentences to understand the intention of the message. This is what enables Sofia (the AI Robot) to understand what you are saying
  • Computer Vision (CV) : This includes analyzing images by looking for certain features and extracting information such as object shape and color. Using Computer Vision enables robots to see. This is how Self-driving cars observe the world around them thus interpreting road signs, steering the vehicle and much more.
  • Speech Recognition : Ever heard of Amazon’s Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant and such intelligent programs and devices? They are able to hear what you say through speech recognition. Furthermore, they understand what you say through Natural Language Processing.
  • Voice Synthesis : Simply, this is generating voice. This is what enables Alexa or Siri to talk back to you.

self driving car sensors
Source: researchgate.com
NLP Chatbot
Source: landbot.io
Robotic Arm
Source: conceptsystemsinc.com

A.I is an interesting field but the inner-workings of the technology can be confusing. For example, how are these intelligent programs made? How do they learn? How are they Programmed?

You may have come across terminologies such as Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Neural Networks. These are the answers to our question posted above and i will get more into them in the next tutorial section:What is Machine Learning?.

For any Questions or Comments, Feel free to Contact Me.