Artificial Intelligence: The Future is Closer than You Think
When people think of artificial intelligence they think of movies like The Terminator or Data from Star Trek, but in the year 2018 artificial intelligence is still in its infancy. Today’s artificial intelligence can range from digital assistants like Alexa and Siri to behavioral algorithms that Google’s search engine uses to target the right ads to Google’s users.
There are two types of AIs and AIs vary depending on the task they are meant to perform.
The first type of AI is a Weak AI or Narrow AI.
Weak AIs focus on one task. Weak AIs have no self-awareness or genuine intelligence. Examples of Weak AIs are Chatbots, bots, Siri and Alexa.
Alexa and Siri are great examples of Weak AIs because it has “narrow” functioning. Although and Alexa can do a lot of things for the user their functioning is very limited because of their lack of self-awareness. They can answer questions, make jokes and hold small limited conversations, but they do not have the capacity to learn or think for themselves. Their conversation range is very limited.
The second type of AI is the Strong AI or True AI.
Strong AI is a computer that is as smart as the human brain. This sort of AI will be able to perform tasks that a human can do. There is a lot of research going into Strong AIs but there is so much to learn. When you think of Strong AIs picture Cortona from the Halo series, The Matrix, and The Terminator. Though as of now in 2018 AIs are still in their infancy. The most we will get in this decade are Bots, Siri, and Alexa.
Other Types of AIs that are mainly based on functionalities
Reactive Machines
This is one of the most basic forms of AI. It doesn’t have a past memory so it cannot use past information for future actions.
An example of a Reactive AI is the IBM Chess Program that was used to beat Garry Kasparov in the 1990s
Limited Memory AI
Limited Memory AIs can use past experiences to inform future decisions. A prime example of this would be Apple’s, Chatbot Siri.
Theory of Mind
Theory of Mind AIs is AIs that can understand people’s emotions, beliefs, expectations, and thoughts. Using that information, they can be able to interact socially. Though there are a lot of improvements in this field of AI, this kind of AI has not been completed yet.
Self-Awareness
Self-Awareness AIs are the AIs that are sentient and self-aware. These types of AIs have their consciousness and are super-intelligent. This type of does not exist but if achieved it will be one of the biggest milestones in the field of AI. When you picture self-awareness, bots think of Data from star trek or Skynet from The Terminator.
AIs are now in their infancy, but as computer engineers and computer scientist continue to work on the field of artificial intelligence who knows what we will have in the future.
