What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Artificial intelligence, or AI, has gotten plenty of buzz over the past few years. In fact, both Google and Amazon are using it to help power some of their most popular products and services, and many believe that soon almost every new software development will include AI technology of some kind in order to provide better user experiences, enhance accuracy, etc. But what exactly is artificial intelligence? And how can you benefit from it? This guide will answer those questions as well as introduce you to the basics of AI technology in general, so you can make an informed decision about whether it’s right for your own business or not.
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Why do we need AI?
It’s estimated that artificial intelligence will generate trillions of dollars in economic value in the next decade. The potential for AI is huge. It could be used to predict future problems so that we can prevent them, or offer new ways to experience entertainment or educate ourselves. AI will allow us to explore all sorts of interesting questions about humanity and life.
The future of AI
We've seen AI revolutionize games with AlphaGo Zero. We're seeing healthcare benefits with research identifying cancer patients that would be best to treat with drugs before surgery. Could AI power a self-driving car or create fresh ideas for new technologies? It might be some time before we find out as more work has to be done in the fields of education, research, infrastructure, ethics and legislation. But what does this all mean for the future? Is it an existential threat that could take away jobs from us? Or can these innovations lead to better health care outcomes at lower costs and less pollution from transportation? The jury's still out on those questions--but what's clear is that our life's becoming much more closely intertwined with technology.
How can AI help businesses today?
One of the most common applications of AI in today's business world involves forecasting. Forecasting helps businesses plan for various outcomes by estimating what could happen next based on past data. For example, an investor may want to know the likelihood that a certain stock will go up or down by a certain amount in the near future. One way they can calculate this likelihood is to use machine learning software that employs supervised and unsupervised techniques like random forests or hidden Markov models. With such techniques in hand, even someone with no knowledge of investment can make predictions on stocks with accuracy equivalent to that of Wall Street experts who use human intelligence to analyze different probabilities.
Other questions answered
So what exactly is AI? In a nutshell, it's the science of making machines intelligent. Essentially an AI system works by going through countless simulations to improve its knowledge of a subject over time. What makes this even more powerful is that when one learns something new it can then share what it learned with other programs so that they too know the information.
Will my job be replaced by an AI solution?
Of course! AI is poised to take the place of some human tasks. Some people think this will mean total job replacement. AI may come to replace jobs like transportation or data-entry clerks. As artificial intelligence becomes more advanced it could have other impacts on work as well, like cutting the need for some managers and executives. But a more likely scenario is that AI might change the way we interact with work – increasing productivity and giving us time to pursue personal interests or just spend time with our families. In addition, technology in general has helped create new jobs rather than take them away in recent decades – if anything, an era of brain automation could offer new employment opportunities in emerging areas such as engineering innovation.