Artificial intelligence - what is it? These are both systems that recognize human faces or writing, as well as cars that can drive without human intervention. There are many potential benefits of artificial intelligence, on the other hand, some people believe that artificial intelligence can carry many threats, and most of all lead to the extermination of humanity …

Contents:

  1. Artificial intelligence: what is it?
  2. Artificial intelligence: what are the possibilities?
  3. Artificial intelligence: a threat to humans?

Artificial intelligence- its development has accelerated in recent years due to the fact that humanity has newer and more perfect technological possibilities. However, work on artificial intelligence has been going on for a long time. They began in the first half of the last century. It may seem to us that the development of artificial intelligence is just taking place, but in reality… it is just surrounding us. Devices using artificial intelligence systems can be found in our homes or pockets - we are talking here, for example, about modern telephones.

Artificial intelligence: what is it?

According to the originally proposed definition, artificial intelligence would be machines that could display phenomena analogous to human intelligence. As complex as it sounds, there is a relatively easy way to explain this aspect. Well, in "typical" programming, information systems have somehow coded how they are to respond to specific tasks. For example - pressing the appropriate icon on the computer screen will result in launching the desired program. This is how machines are produced that are to function in a strictly defined manner.

The term artificial intelligence was first used in the 1950s by the American computer scientist John McCarthy.

Devices with artificial intelligence are supposed to function differently - their task, in turn, is to make decisions on their own (even in a situation where some data necessary to make one are missing - in such situations, classic devices may freeze, intelligence, in turn, has vsome way to decide for yourself). Another feature of artificial intelligence, in turn, is that it is supposed to achieve the ability to learn. After all, this skill is one of the basic manifestations of human intelligence, and it is for this reason that its achievement by machines is desired by the creators of artificial intelligence.

Within artificial intelligence, there are many different issues, such as neural networks, robotics or even artificial life. The subject of artificial intelligence is of interest not only to IT specialists, but also to filmmakers - after all, the series of films about the deadly machine in the form of the Terminator was popular at one time. Although sometimes we are completely unaware of it, we actually use artificial intelligence on a daily basis.

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Artificial intelligence: what are the possibilities?

Until recently, cars that would travel safely on the roads by themselves - without the participation of the driver - could only be seen in science-fiction films about the distant future. Currently, in principle, the first such vehicles are already appearing, but it will probably be some time before they become widely available.

Artificial intelligence, however - admittedly in a less impressive way than the above-mentioned - accompanies us in everyday life. As artificial intelligence, we can treat, for example, facial recognition systems available in modern telephones, algorithms for positioning texts on the Internet or speech recognition systems and programs that automatically translate foreign texts.

Artificial intelligence can be used in a much wider range than one might imagine. As evidence for the validity of this claim, research that was carried out in New York can be cited. The specialists there prepared the "Deep Patient" program, which, on the basis of the data available to him (such as patients' medical records or the results of tests performed on them), was to identify the he alth problems of patients.

It turned out that the system was quite efficient in diagnosing various diseases, interestingly - it even recognized the problem of schizophrenia with great accuracy (it should be emphasized here that diagnosing schizophrenia is not easy and even experienced specialists have a problem with it ).

Comparisons of human capabilities with the potential of artificial intelligence were also made by the creatorsthe so-called Watson's supercomputer. Their experiences were also related to the medical world and concerned the diagnosis of lung cancer. In a situation where the average oncology specialist was able to recognize about half of all cases of this disease, the computer using artificial intelligence correctly diagnosed … even 9 out of 10 cases.

Worth knowing

Artificial intelligence - from HR to robots

Artificial intelligence is used in more and more areas, it is being used by, for example, recruitment specialists (intelligent machines can select candidates or deal with answering their applications). Artificial intelligence is also used by marketers, as systems that answer consumers' questions asked in an on-line form have been in operation for quite a long time.

The type of artificial intelligence, which are robots, is of interest to many people from the technology industry - the use of specialized machines is sometimes considered both cheaper (than employing people) and faster way to produce. There are also systems that control road traffic independently, based on the use of artificial intelligence.

There are more and more reports about the possibilities of using artificial intelligence. One of the more interesting examples is that recently there has been information that scientists have developed a system that - after analyzing just one photo of a human face - could determine the sexual orientation of a given person.

Artificial intelligence: a threat to humans?

Overworking people in various activities - e.g. driving mechanical vehicles - may seem quite tempting and provoke the statement that artificial intelligence should be developed as soon as possible. Nevertheless, there are voices that artificial intelligence actually … poses a threat to the human species. This view is expressed by an increasing number of scientists, one of them is the well-known physicist Stephen Hawking.

The justification for the aforementioned fears may be, for example, that and yes - just as the effects obtained by artificial intelligence are noticeable, so are the ways in which the stunning results are achieved - not necessarily. There are situations when the programmers who have created a given machine with artificial intelligence themselves, do not really know how and why it works in a certain way and why it makes such and not other decisions.

If it is not known exactly how artificial intelligence works, it is also impossible to predict intelligent behaviormachines. A simple example can be given here - a self-driving car is instructed to get us to work as soon as possible.

The machine does - it can adapt to the command and actually go fast, but one question remains: what will it do when it comes across a red light? Will it be operated in accordance with the road traffic regulations? In devices programmed according to human will, the behavior in such events can be predicted, in the case of systems that have the ability to learn - not necessarily.

The inability to predict how artificial intelligence works can most certainly be considered a threat related to these technologies. Eventually, it could happen that the revolt of machines - a phenomenon that has so far only been seen in the pages of books - could eventually become reality.

In opposition to the opponents of artificial intelligence, however, there are those who say that yes - artificial intelligence may in some aspects exceed human capabilities, but it will always lack something that people definitely have. These factors that are missing from even the most intelligent machines are awareness.

About the authorBow. Tomasz NęckiA graduate of medicine at the Medical University of Poznań. An admirer of the Polish sea (most willingly strolling along its shores with headphones in his ears), cats and books. In working with patients, he focuses on always listening to them and spending as much time as they need.

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