Artifical Intelligence Series: What Actually is AI?

Have you ever heard of ChatGPT? Or maybe saw artifical intelligence word everywhere, even it is irrelevant? In this article series, we will talk about Artifical Intelligence and its evolution, subfields and applications.

What the 'heck' is AI?

In fact, describing AI is not that easy but we can say that according to a widely-used book AIMA (Artifical Intelligence: A Modern Approach):

Artifical intelligence is a subfield of computer science that aims to create machines that can perceive their environment and take actions to maximize their chances of successfully achieving their goals.

Well, this is still sounding complicated, right?

Let's try to make it simpler.

Examples of AI in Daily Life

• ChatGPT: You ask a question, say something and it replies to you.
• DALL-E: You describe the picture you want and it creates it for you.
• Voice Assistants (e.g., Siri or Google Assistant): You talk using your voice and they understand, then reply to you.

In fact, neither our voice nor our text has a meaning for machines. They are just a sequence of numbers.

However, using AI, machines can perceive them (creating machines that can perceive their environment) and act according to the commands we provide (taking steps to maximize their chances of successfully achieving their goals).