Definition - What does Artificial Intelligence (AI) mean?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an area of computer science that emphasizes the creation of
intelligent machines that work and react like humans. Some of the activities computers
with artificial intelligence are designed for include:

 Speech recognition
 Learning
 Planning
 Problem solving

Techopedia explains Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science that aims to create intelligent
machines. It has become an essential part of the technology industry.
Research associated with artificial intelligence is highly technical and specialized. The
core problems of artificial intelligence include programming computers for certain traits
such as:

 Knowledge
 Reasoning
 Problem solving
 Perception
 Learning
 Planning
 Ability to manipulate and move objects
 Knowledge engineering is a core part of AI research. Machines can often act and
react like humans only if they have abundant information relating to the world.
Artificial intelligence must have access to objects, categories, properties and
relations between all of them to implement knowledge engineering. Initiating
common sense, reasoning and problem-solving power in machines is a difficult
and tedious task.
 Machine learning is also a core part of AI. Learning without any kind of
supervision requires an ability to identify patterns in streams of inputs, whereas
learning with adequate supervision involves classification and numerical
regressions. Classification determines the category an object belongs to and
regression deals with obtaining a set of numerical input or output examples,
thereby discovering functions enabling the generation of suitable outputs from
respective inputs. Mathematical analysis of machine learning algorithms and their
performance is a well-defined branch of theoretical computer science often
referred to as computational learning theory.
  Machine perception deals with the capability to use sensory inputs to deduce the
different aspects of the world, while computer vision is the power to analyze
visual inputs with a few sub-problems such as facial, object and gesture
recognition.
 Robotics is also a major field related to AI. Robots require intelligence to handle
tasks such as object manipulation and navigation, along with sub-problems of
localization, motion planning and mapping.

Applications of AI
AI has been dominant in various fields such as −

 Gaming − AI plays crucial role in strategic games such as chess, poker, tic-tac-
toe, etc., where machine can think of large number of possible positions based
on heuristic knowledge.

 Natural Language Processing − It is possible to interact with the computer

that understands natural language spoken by humans.

 Expert Systems − There are some applications which integrate machine,

software, and special information to impart reasoning and advising. They
provide explanation and advice to the users.

 Vision Systems − These systems understand, interpret, and comprehend

visual input on the computer. For example,

o A spying aeroplane takes photographs, which are used to figure out

spatial information or map of the areas.

o Doctors use clinical expert system to diagnose the patient.

o Police use computer software that can recognize the face of criminal with
the stored portrait made by forensic artist.

 Speech Recognition − Some intelligent systems are capable of hearing and

comprehending the language in terms of sentences and their meanings while a
human talks to it. It can handle different accents, slang words, noise in the
background, change in human’s noise due to cold, etc.

 Handwriting Recognition − The handwriting recognition software reads the

text written on paper by a pen or on screen by a stylus. It can recognize the
shapes of the letters and convert it into editable text.
  Intelligent Robots − Robots are able to perform the tasks given by a human.
They have sensors to detect physical data from the real world such as light,
heat, temperature, movement, sound, bump, and pressure. They have efficient
processors, multiple sensors and huge memory, to exhibit intelligence. In
addition, they are capable of learning from their mistakes and they can adapt to
the new environment.

Sophia is a social humanoid robot developed

by Hong Kong based company Hanson Robotics.
Sophia was activated on February 14, 2016,[1] and
made its first public appearance at South by
Southwest Festival (SXSW) in mid-March 2016 in
Austin, Texas, United States.[2] It is able to display
more than 50 facial expressions.
Sophia has been covered by media around the
globe and has participated in many high-profile
interviews. In October 2017, Sophia became the
first robot to receive citizenship of any country.[3][4] In
November 2017, Sophia was named the United
Nations Development Programme's first ever
Innovation Champion, and is the first non-human to
be given any United Nations title.[5]