Two Minute Technology: Introduction

Introduction

Computers are everywhere. We use them for practically everything we do in our daily lives. From productivity, entertainment, education, work, health, communication and connection. The amount of jobs computers can do and specialize in is increasingly amazing to think about. We're living in a moment where computers are able to perform fast operations, advanced calculations, surveillance and communication, diagnose diseases and make scientific discoveries. But are we able to say that computers are smart like humans? Are computers more intelligent than humans?

Unfortunately (or fortunately), computers have not yet reached superintelligence; where the intelligence of computers surpasses the intelligence of the human brain. In fact, it takes several months to years of training for a computer to learn how to perform mundane tasks. For example, a computer would have to survey thousands upon millions of images of dogs and cats, in order to finally be able to identify the difference between a picture of a cat and a picture of a dog. So how can we make computers more intelligent? This is where the study of artificial intelligence plays a critical role in improving computer systems' intelligence.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is intelligence demonstrated by computers as opposed to natural intelligence displayed by animals and humans. The field of artificial intelligence is an approach to make a computer, be it a robot or other type of machine or product, to think like human beings. Essentially, AI is the study of how human brains think, learn, decide and work, in order to solve problems. The aim of AI is to improve computer functions related to human knowledge, for example, reasoning, learning, perception, linguistic intelligence and problem-solving. AI applications include advanced web search engines (i.e. Google), recommendation systems (used by Netflix, Amazon and YouTube), virtual assistants (such as Alexa and Siri), autonomous vehicles (i.e. Tesla and drones), targeted advertising (such as AdSense), and much more.

Why is Artificial Intelligence Important?

In short, AI is the future. Artificial intelligence provides solutions to many problems. With this technology, we are able to produce more goods and services, create more jobs and conduct more research. AI has already made a huge impact in our day-to-day lives. Some examples of how we use and interact with AI on a daily basis include: searching the Internet, unlocking our devices with facial recognition, online shopping, language translation and text-to-speech applications, playing video games, word generators, and asking our Alexa device to set a timer for our chocolate chip cookies in the oven. If you're interested in learning more about AI, I've provided a few links below that goes into a little bit more about AI and some cool applications of it.

The Beginner's Guide to Artificial Intelligence (AI)

About the Blogger

Hello! My name is McKyley Cherry and I'm a computer science student. My interests within the world of computer science includes artificial intelligence, video games, networking, and security information systems. Some of my other interests are: music, anime, foreign languages, art, cooking, traveling, and reading. My goal with this blog is to explore the field of artificial intelligence, from the basics of AI to its applications within our daily lives, as well as any other aspects of computer science and technology that I find interesting. I hope you enjoyed reading this first post within this series. See you next time!

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