Introduction to AI

One interesting foundation of artificial intelligence is based on humans - homo sapiens. Humans are always considered to be the 'wiser' over computers. Many of the issues in AI are concerned with intelligence. However, unlike philosophy and psychology, AI attempts to build intelligent systems as well. These "electronic brains" are arguably more intelligent than Einstein, or in fact, faster than Einstein. Furthermore, it is nonetheless an extremely complex problem to justify this fully, as to satisfy the theory and the public.
Through these sections you will be able to discover a general description of AI, and to see how this topic impacts the society in various ways.

(1)The most intelligent machine
(2)What is AI (Artificial Intelligence)?
(3)What is the Turing Test?
(4)Why Research AI?
(5)Issues Concerning AI

The Turing Test

The Turing Test was introduced by Alan M. Turing (1912-1954) as "the imitation game" in his 1950 article Computing Machinery and Intelligence which he so boldly began with the following sentence: I propose to consider the question "Can machines think?"
This begins with definitions of the meaning of the terms "machine" and "think". The Turing test would refute anyone who doubts that a computer can really think:

If an observer cannot distinguish the responses of a programmed machine from those of a human being, the machine is said to have passed the Turing test.In other words, the Turing test determines if a computer program has intelligence.
The Turing test involves a computer, a human interrogator and a human foil. The interrogator attempts to determine, by asking questions of the other two participants, which is the computer.All communication is via keyboard and screen. The interrogator may ask questions as penetrating and wide-ranging as he or she likes, and the computer is permitted to do everything possible to force a wrong identification.

Smart moves for the computer would be to say 'No' in response to 'Are you a computer?' and to follow a request to multiply one huge number by another with a long pause and an incorrect answer.The foil must help the interrogator to make a correct identification. A number of different people play the roles of interrogator and foil, and if sufficiently many interrogators are unable to distinguish the computer from the human being then it is to be concluded that the computer thinks.
Click here to take the turing test now!

What is Artificial Intelligence?

The term 'artificial intelligence' is rather a broad one, being used in diverse activities such as robotics, game playing, and natural language understanding. The common feature of these activities is the exhibition by machines of behaviour, which would normally be considered intelligent if displayed by human beings. AI is the name given to the whole field of endeavour associated with producing such behaviour in machines. So informally, AI is such a program that in an arbitrary world will cope not worse than a human.

Although there is no clear definition of AI, it can be described as the attempt to build machines that think and act like humans, that are able to learn and to use their knowledge to solve problems on their own.

There are four desired outcomes that are pursued in AI:
Computers with the ability to think as humans;
Computers with the ability to act like humans;
Computers with the ability to think rationally;
Computers with the ability to act rationally.

The first and second outcomes measure success in terms of human performance whereas the third and fourth outcomes measure against an ideal concept of intelligence, which we call rationality. A system is rational if it does the right thing.

Disagreement centres on humans and rationality. That is not to say we are irrational, but we do make mistakes. Human based methods centre on experimental science. The rationalist method involves mathematics and engineering.

The most widely spread definition of AI is the so-called Turing's test (by Alan Turing). The Turing's test is quite simple. We place something behind a curtain and it speaks with us. If we can't make difference between it and a human being then it will be AI. Turing's definition suggests that, an Intellect is a person with knowledge gained through the years. If this is so, then what about a newly born baby? Is it an Intellect? Our answer will be "yes". Our definition of an intellect will be: a thing that knows nothing but it can learn. At this point we differ from most people who imagine a university professor when they hear the word Intellect.

Artificial intelligence includes:

Game playing: The greatest advances have occurred in the field of games playing. The best computer chess programs are now capable of beating humans. In May 1997, an IBM super-computer called Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov in a chess match. Robotics: programming computers to see and hear and react to other sensory stimuli. In the area of robotics, computers are now widely used in assembly plants, but they are capable only of very limited tasks. Robots have great difficulty identifying objects based on appearance or feel, and they still move and handle objects clumsily.

Natural Language:

Natural language processing offers the greatest potential rewards because it would allow people to interact with computers without needing any specialized knowledge by programming computers to understand natural human languages. You could simply walk up to a computer and talk to it. Unfortunately, programming computers to understand natural languages has proved to be more difficult than originally thought.

Expert systems: programming computers to make decisions in real-life situations (for example, some expert systems help doctors diagnose diseases based on symptoms). Neural networks: Today, the hottest area of artificial intelligence is neural networks. They are systems that simulate intelligence by attempting to reproduce the types of physical connections that occur in animal brains. They are proving successful in a number of disciplines such as voice recognition and natural language processing.
AI raises issues that are deeply emotive --- "Can Machines Think?" However, there is currently no computers exhibit full artificial intelligence (that is, are able to simulate human behaviour).