1 Intuition of AI
This chapter covers
- The definition of AI as we know it
- Intuition concepts underpinning AI and important terminology
- Defining problem types and approaches to solve them
- An overview of the AI algorithms discussed in this book
- Real-world use cases for AI algorithms
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Intelligence is a mystery—a phenomenon that has no concrete agreed-upon definition. Philosophers, psychologists, scientists, and engineers all have different opinions about what it is and how it emerges. We see intelligence in nature around us, like groups of ants and birds working together, and we see intelligence in the way that us humans think and behave. At a minimum, things that are autonomous yet adaptive are considered to be intelligent. Autonomous means that something does not need to be provided constant specific instructions; and adaptive means that it can change its behavior as the environment or problem space changes. When we look at living organisms and machines, we see that the core element for operation is data. Visuals that we see are data; sounds that we hear are data; measurements of the things around us are data. We consume data, process it all, and make decisions; so a fundamental understanding of the concepts surrounding data is important for understanding artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms.