5 Things Tech Experts Need to Know About AI

More and more, artificial intelligence technology is becoming prevalent in the digital universe via cloud services. It powers online shopping recommendations, processes voice commands for popular applications, such as Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri platform, and enables photo recognition as well as detects malicious activities such as email, spam and credit card fraud.

Researchers recognize two categories of artificial intelligence: “narrow” and “general” AI. Engineers use narrow AI to power technologies such as language recognition, self-driving cars and other familiar consumer-facing applications.

General AI, however, is a different animal. It's comparable to human intelligence and can execute varying tasks while learning from experiences. This is the kind of antagonistic technology that’s feared by the imaginary characters in blockbuster movies such as Terminator and The Matrix.

The following sections reveal 5 more fascinating and informative facts about artificial intelligence.

Fact 1. Know What Artificial Intelligence Is and How AI Is Used

In the early days of the discipline, researchers defined artificial intelligence is any task performed by a program or machine that a human would have to use intelligence to accomplish. Although, this broad definition sometimes leads to disputes about what technologies actually qualify as AI. Today, artificial intelligence mimics the human mind in many aspects, such as:

• Knowledge representation
• Learning
• Motion
• Object manipulation
• Perception
• Planning
• Problem-solving
• Reasoning

To a lesser extent, AI also emulates the human mind in the areas of social intelligence and creativity.

Fact 2. Understand the Basic Premise of Artificial Intelligence

Scientists invented artificial intelligence to aid humans, rather than replace them. A specific branch of the AI discipline, cognitive computing, deals with AI technology that can think remarkably faster than the human mind.

Cognitive computing experts believe that other artificial intelligence technologies must improve before enterprises can benefit from the innovation. Foremost, no artificial intelligence technology can work safely and appropriately without ongoing oversite by skilled experts, making it important for more data scientists to become learned in this discipline so that it can benefit society.

Fact 3. Investing in AI Technology and Education Is Valuable

There are many reasons for information technology (IT) experts to consider learning about artificial intelligence. Even for professionals who currently work in the field, keeping up with the whirlwind of rapidly emerging changes is difficult. In fact, there are few artificial intelligence experts who truly understand how the swiftly evolving technology will impact life as we know it.

For those who are interested in learning about AI technology, years of study and university training aren't the only ways to acquire knowledge about innovation. There are many introductory through expert level online training courses that knowledge seekers can use to learn about AI.

For instance, Google has launched the Google AI learning platform to help interested parties learn about the technology. Google also offers a more in-depth course regarding AI through the Udacity learning website, and Nvidia offers its online course entitled “Fundamentals of Deep Learning for Computer Vision” to teach developers how to build computers that can see by processing visual information.

Fact 4. AI and Blockchain Technology

Artificial intelligence is also a powerful resource for securing information. As an example, financial institutions are increasingly using it to flag potentially fraudulent transactions for further review.

Blockchain is the underlying technology that supports cryptocurrency transactions. It secures the digital exchanges and makes them nearly impossible to compromise.

For now, real-world applications for this joining of technology are few. Still, Blockchain technology could open up a new realm of possibilities for artificial intelligence systems. This potential marriage of technology is that the bleeding edge of science. However, some hopeful experts believe that this will soon change.

Fact 5. The Future of AI Is Unpredictable and Changing Fast

Robots and computers are becoming smarter. To put this in perspective, if you think of human thought as linear, the advancement of technology is exponential.

This concept derived from the work of futurist Ray Kurzweil, who presented evidence in his writings that all technological progress made in the 20th century was equivalent to all the advancements made by scientists between the years 2000 and 2014. The theorist further argues that this same leap into technological advancement will take place again before the year 2021. To keep pace with these kinds of advances, it's important to realize that technological evolutions are not always linear and will come increasingly fast.

Completely autonomous self-driving cars are not yet a reality. Still, forecast analysts, the technology promises to assume 1.7 million human trucking jobs over the next 10 years. In addition, advanced technologies are positioned to usurp the vast majority of package delivery and passenger ferrying jobs.

Despite these changes to come, some of the easiest human tasks won't need highly advanced technologies to emerge before becoming obsolete. For instance, millions of professionals work in the administration field performing basic tasks such as copying information between systems and making appointments for superiors. 

As technology improves, the need for humans to perform these kinds of administrative tasks will diminish. However, as foretold by history, as technology takes away jobs it will replace them with new and more interesting career opportunities.