What is AI?
An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
AI—artificial intelligence—is a common term today, but it is often used without explaining what exactly what it means. In fact, AI is a very broad field, and borders on many other fields of study, including statistics, game theory, and psychology.
One way to refine what we mean by “AI” is by making a distinction between “strong” and “weak” AI. Strong AI refers to software that thinks, and has mental states, in much the way that humans do. Star Trek: The Next Generation’s android Data is a good from popular culture. We can’t build systems like this today, and there is lively philosophical and technical debate over whether it’s possible, even in theory.
What we use today are systems that behave intelligently; this is called “weak” AI, but don’t underestimate its capabilities—it is a very powerful tool! By making systems behave intelligently, we can very effectively automate many tasks.
Modern AI systems are, generally, specialized software systems that behave intelligently for solving specific, well-defined problems. In these areas, they may even be preferable to more human-like systems, since they can’t become bored or inattentive.
