Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Professor Ravee Choudhury

2nd May 2019

First Talk: Webinar on “Artificial Intelligence- demystified”
Outline of Topics to be Covered over the 4 sessions

• What is Human Intelligence & what is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

• Definitions of AI
• Why is this subject important today?
• What has made AI practical today?
• Types of AI
• Underpinning technologies of AI
• Some interesting applications of AI
• How AI applications get developed (Tools of AI )
• Social , ethical and political issues related to
development of AI systems
What is Human Intelligence ?

• Through their intelligence, humans possess the cognitive abilities to

learn, form concepts, understand , apply logic and reason, recognize
patterns , comprehend ideas, plan , solve problems , make decisions,
retain info, use language to communicate , learn from experience ,
adapt to new situations, understand and handle abstract concepts,
use knowledge to manipulate ones environment .
• Human intelligence integrates cognitive functions such as perception ,
attention, memory , language or planning.
• Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought , experience and the senses.
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) ?

• AI (also known as Machine Intelligence) is intelligence demonstrated

by machines in contrast to natural intelligence displayed by humans
and other animals.
• AI makes it possible for machines to
(a)learn from experience
(b) adjust to new inputs and
(c) perform human-like tasks
Various definitions of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• The theory and development of computer systems to perform tasks
requiring human intelligence (such as visual perception , speech
recognition, decision making , translation between languages,
learning, problem solving , planning etc.)
• The ability of a digital computer or computer controlled robot to
perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.
• A machine performing tasks which involves certain degree of
intelligence which was previously deemed only to be done by
humans.
• The simulation of human intelligence processes by machines (
especially computer systems) . Such human intelligence processes
are : learning , reasoning , self correction.
Various definitions of AI.. contd
• Capabilities of a machine to imitate/mimic intelligent human
behavior
• What it really boils down to is “how closer or how well a computer
can imitate or go beyond , when compared to human beings “
Why is AI important today ?

• AI will soon power most of our activities in society and business ,

drastically changing the way we work and live . Hence learning how AI
works and understanding its implications for our lives is important.
• AI automates “repetitive learning and discovery through data” . AI
performs frequent , high volume computerised tasks reliably without
fatigue.
• AI adds intelligence to existing products. Automation,
Conversational Platforms, Bots and Smart Machines can be combined
with large amounts of data to improve many technologies at home &
workplace
Why is AI important today?(contd…)

• AI adapts through progressive learning algorithms to let the data do the

programming. AI finds structures , patterns and regularities in data so that
the algorithm acquires a skill. The algorithm becomes a classifier or a
predictor. The model adapts when given new data and adjusts through
training and added data.
• AI analyses more and deeper data using neural networks that have many
hidden layers. This has been made possible with incredible computing
power and big data. You need massive amounts of data to train deep
learning models because the models learn directly from data.
• AI achieves incredible accuracy through deep neural networks. Our
interactions with ALEXA , Google search , SERI , Cortina are all based on
Deep Learning. In the field of medicine, AI technologies such as Deep
Learning , Image Classification and Object Recognition are now used to find
cancer on MRI with high accuracy.
Why is AI important today?(contd…)

• AI gets most out of data : When the algorithms are self learning,
data becomes the intellectual property. The answers are in the data.
You apply AI to get the answers out from data. (Role of data is now
more important than ever.)
• Speed of AI implementation: AI technologies are being introduced at
incredibly fast pace.
• Potential impact on society: It is hard to imagine the number of
things that AI will be able to improve, transform or create as we begin
to apply to so many different areas of life.
• AI being prioritized today by every large technology company
Why is AI important today?(contd…)

• Shortage of knowledge workers: AI growing so rapidly that there is a big

demand and need for more Data Scientists, Machine Learning Experts ,
other tech professionals to build AI solutions and services
• Competitive advantages for companies who first apply it correctly
• Legal implications world wide : In every country, laws and regulations
need to be reviewed and updated to incorporate the new trends of AI era .
There is demand for info on ways society can benefit by applying AI to
fields like healthcare , transportation , education , agriculture ,
manufacturing etc.
• Ethical development of AI : We need to ensure that companies develop
new technologies ethically and responsibly to better serve humanity and
improve standards of living.
Why is AI important today?(contd…)

• Communicating the advantages and opportunities of AI : Outside of

technology sector , most people have negative impressions of AI tools
due to lack of understanding. Sharing info about benefits of AI is
important to help people feeling comfortable with adopting those
new technologies.
• Collaboration between private and public sector for R&D of AI. :
There need to be strong and open collaboration internationally as
well as between companies all sizes and between public and private
sectors. Several sectors will change drastically thanks to AI
What has made AI feasible today ?

• More times than any other field of innovation, AI has gone through
recurring cycles of overinflated hype followed by disappointment,
pessimism and funding cutbacks.
• AI winters truly a thing of the past thanks to incredible computing power
and huge amounts of data now available to train neural networks.
• Example real world application enabled by this shift are image recognition
and chatbots.
• AI research is now focussed on core advances that will make AI more useful
and reliable across industries
• The term AI was coined nearly 70 years ago ( 1956)
What has made AI feasible today ? (contd..)

• Two main reasons for AI to be real now. It is because of two exponential

laws.
• First one is Moore’s law : In 1975 , we had 1000 transistors on a square cm
chip. Today we have 10 billion transistors on a square cm. Latest High
Performance Computer performs 200K trillion calculations/second.
• We now have huge computing power which is critical for AI applications
• Second law is Metcalfe’s law : The value of a network is proportional to 2
raised to power of “n” , where “n” is the no of nodes in the network .
• Apply this law to World Wide Web and social networks . These have
created huge volumes of data
What has made AI feasible today ? (contd..)

• We now have data available on WWW + Structured Digital Data that

enterprises have + all data available from Sensors of IOT +
Manufacturing Data +Camera Data + …
• So there is huge amount of data available from all of the above
sources
• And vast progress has been made in neural networks
• In some specialised areas such as image recognition , AI has super
human quality and super speed
• AI itself now at the beginning of an exponential curve creating
exponentially fast new insights.
Types of AI

• Type 1
A. Narrow/Weak AI : AI focused on one narrow task ( example : a
poker game where a machine beats a human being . All rules and
moves of the game are fed to the machine. Each and every possible
scenario in entered before hand, manually)
B. Strong AI : Machine that can actually think and perform tasks
on its own just like a human being . No machine as of now which can
do this. Some industry leaders are keen on getting closer to build a
strong AI.
Types of AI – Contd…

• Type 2 ( based on functionalities)

a. Reactive Machines : These systems do not possess past
memory and cannot use past information as info needed for future
actions ( example : IBM chess program that beat Gary Kasparov in the
1990s)
b. Limited Memory Systems : Systems that can use past
experience for future decisions . Some of the decision making functions
in self-driving cars have been designed this way . An observation is
used to inform actions happening in not so distant future such as a car
that has changed lane. These observations are not stored permanently.
Type 2 AI – contd…

c. Theory of mind : This type of AI system should be able to

understand people’s emotions , beliefs, thoughts and expectations and
be able to interact socially.
d. Self awareness : AI system that has own consciousness , super
intelligence, self awareness and sentiment. ( in simple terms a
complete human being ) This kind of system does not exist as yet. If
achieved it will be a miracle!