You've surely heard the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) — it's a term that has become popular across all media over the past several years, even permeating global culture; heck, Steven Spielberg even made a movie about it.
But do we really know what it is and what types of AI exist? FullOffice has put together this article so we can understand what the future apparently has in store for us.
In simple terms, artificial intelligence (AI) refers to systems or machines that mimic human intelligence to perform tasks, and can iteratively improve based on the information they collect.
AI is much more about the process and the capacity for supercharged thinking and data analysis than about any particular format or function. Although science fiction depicts human-like, high-functioning robots taking over the world, AI isn't meant to replace humans — its goal is to significantly enhance human capabilities and contributions, which makes it a highly valuable business asset.
This set of algorithms is a technology that still feels distant and mysterious to us, yet for the past several years it has been present in our daily lives around the clock and, although still at a very early stage, it is set to drive a revolution comparable to the one sparked by the Internet. Its applications across multiple sectors such as healthcare, finance, transportation, and education have led to the development of the Laws of Robotics.
This rapid rise of AI and robotics in our society has led international bodies to consider the need to create regulations governing its use and deployment, in order to prevent possible problems that may arise in the future.
These are the six laws of robotics proposed by the European Parliament.
- Robots must have an emergency shut-off switch to prevent any dangerous situation.
- They must not harm human beings. Robotics is expressly designed to help and protect people.
- They must not form emotional relationships.
- Insurance will be mandatory for larger-scale machines. In the event of any material damage, the owners will bear the costs.
- Their rights and obligations will be legally classified.
- Machines will contribute to social security. Their entry into the labor market will impact the workforce of many companies. Robots will need to pay taxes to help fund unemployment benefits.
- Systems that think like humans:
These automate activities such as decision-making, problem-solving, and learning.
- Systems that act like humans:
These are computers that perform tasks in a way similar to how people do.
- Systems that think rationally:
These attempt to emulate rational, logical human thought — in other words, research focuses on how to enable machines to perceive, reason, and act accordingly.
- Systems that act rationally:
Ideally, these are systems that try to rationally imitate human behavior, such as intelligent agents.
Today, the amount of data generated, both by humans and by machines, far exceeds people's ability to absorb, interpret, and make complex decisions based on that data. Artificial intelligence forms the foundation of all machine learning and the future of every complex decision-making process.
AI is applied in our everyday lives — in financial services, fraud detection, purchase predictions in retail, and online customer service interactions.
The goal of artificial intelligence is to provide software that can reason about what it receives and explain what it produces as a result. Artificial intelligence will provide human-like interactions with software and offer decision support for specific tasks, but it is not a substitute for humans, and it won't be in the near future — AI will make us more efficient and allow us to carry out actions we could never have accomplished before due to their complexity.