What Is AI

What is artificial intelligence
(AI)? Everything you need to

know
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
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
By
 Nicole Laskowski, Senior News Director

 Linda Tucci, Industry Editor -- CIO/IT Strategy
What is AI?
Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines,
especially computer systems. Specific applications of AI include expert
systems, natural language processing, speech recognition and machine vision.
How does AI work?

As the hype around AI has accelerated, vendors have been scrambling to promote how
their products and services use it. Often, what they refer to as AI is simply a
component of the technology, such as machine learning. AI requires a foundation of
specialized hardware and software for writing and training machine learning
algorithms. No single programming language is synonymous with AI, but Python, R,
Java, C++ and Julia have features popular with AI developers.
In general, AI systems work by ingesting large amounts of labeled training data,

analyzing the data for correlations and patterns, and using these patterns to make
predictions about future states. In this way, a chatbot that is fed examples of text can
learn to generate lifelike exchanges with people, or an image recognition tool can
learn to identify and describe objects in images by reviewing millions of examples.
New, rapidly improving generative AI techniques can create realistic text, images,
music and other media.
AI programming focuses on cognitive skills that include the following:
 Learning. This aspect of AI programming focuses on acquiring data and

creating rules for how to turn it into actionable information. The rules,
which are called algorithms, provide computing devices with step-by-step
instructions for how to complete a specific task.
 Reasoning. This aspect of AI programming focuses on choosing the right

algorithm to reach a desired outcome.
 Self-correction. This aspect of AI programming is designed to continually

fine-tune algorithms and ensure they provide the most accurate results
possible.
 Creativity. This aspect of AI uses neural networks, rules-based systems,

statistical methods and other AI techniques to generate new images, new
text, new music and new ideas.
Differences between AI, machine learning and deep learning
AI, machine learning and deep learning are common terms in enterprise IT and sometimes used interchangeably,
especially by companies in their marketing materials. But there are distinctions. The term AI, coined in the 1950s,
refers to the simulation of human intelligence by machines. It covers an ever-changing set of capabilities as new
technologies are developed. Technologies that come under the umbrella of AI include machine learning and deep
learning.
Machine learning enables software applications to become more accurate at predicting outcomes without being
explicitly programmed to do so. Machine learning algorithms use historical data as input to predict new output
values. This approach became vastly more effective with the rise of large data sets to train on. Deep learning, a
subset of machine learning, is based on our understanding of how the brain is structured. Deep learning's use of
artificial neural network structure is the underpinning of recent advances in AI, including self-driving cars and
ChatGPT.
Why is artificial intelligence important?
AI is important for its potential to change how we live, work and play. It has been
effectively used in business to automate tasks done by humans, including customer
service work, lead generation, fraud detection and quality control. In a number of
areas, AI can perform tasks much better than humans. Particularly when it comes to
repetitive, detail-oriented tasks, such as analyzing large numbers of legal documents
to ensure relevant fields are filled in properly, AI tools often complete jobs quickly
and with relatively few errors. Because of the massive data sets it can process, AI can
also give enterprises insights into their operations they might not have been aware of.
The rapidly expanding population of generative AI tools will be important in fields
ranging from education and marketing to product design.
THIS ARTICLE IS PART OF
A guide to artificial intelligence in the enterprise

 Which also includes:
 10 top AI and machine learning trends for 2024
 10 top artificial intelligence certifications and courses for 2024
 The future of AI: What to expect in the next 5 years
Indeed, advances in AI techniques have not only helped fuel an explosion in

efficiency, but opened the door to entirely new business opportunities for some larger
enterprises. Prior to the current wave of AI, it would have been hard to imagine using
computer software to connect riders to taxis, but Uber has become a Fortune 500
company by doing just that.
AI has become central to many of today's largest and most successful companies,
including Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Meta, where AI technologies are used to
improve operations and outpace competitors. At Alphabet subsidiary Google, for
example, AI is central to its search engine, Waymo's self-driving cars and Google
Brain, which invented the transformer neural network architecture that underpins the
recent breakthroughs in natural language processing.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of artificial
intelligence?
Artificial neural networks and deep learning AI technologies are quickly evolving,
primarily because AI can process large amounts of data much faster and make
predictions more accurately than humanly possible.
While the huge volume of data created on a daily basis would bury a human
researcher, AI applications using machine learning can take that data and quickly turn
it into actionable information. As of this writing, a primary disadvantage of AI is that
it is expensive to process the large amounts of data AI programming requires. As AI
techniques are incorporated into more products and services, organizations must also
be attuned to AI's potential to create biased and discriminatory systems, intentionally
or inadvertently.
Advantages of AI
The following are some advantages of AI.
 Good at detail-oriented jobs. AI has proven to be just as good, if not better

than doctors at diagnosing certain cancers, including breast
cancer and melanoma.
 Reduced time for data-heavy tasks. AI is widely used in data-heavy

industries, including banking and securities, pharma and insurance, to
reduce the time it takes to analyze big data sets. Financial services, for
example, routinely use AI to process loan applications and detect fraud.
 Saves labor and increases productivity. An example here is the use

of warehouse automation, which grew during the pandemic and is expected
to increase with the integration of AI and machine learning.
 Delivers consistent results. The best AI translation tools deliver high levels
of consistency, offering even small businesses the ability to reach customers
in their native language.
 Can improve customer satisfaction through personalization. AI can
personalize content, messaging, ads, recommendations and websites to
individual customers.
 AI-powered virtual agents are always available. AI programs do not need

to sleep or take breaks, providing 24/7 service.
Disadvantages of AI
The following are some disadvantages of AI.
 Expensive.
 Requires deep technical expertise.
 Limited supply of qualified workers to build AI tools.
 Reflects the biases of its training data, at scale.

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What is artificial intelligence

(AI)? Everything you need to

 Nicole Laskowski, Senior News Director

How does AI work?

In general, AI systems work by ingesting large amounts of labeled training data,

AI programming focuses on cognitive skills that include the following:

 Learning. This aspect of AI programming focuses on acquiring data and

 Reasoning. This aspect of AI programming focuses on choosing the right

 Self-correction. This aspect of AI programming is designed to continually

 Creativity. This aspect of AI uses neural networks, rules-based systems,

THIS ARTICLE IS PART OF

A guide to artificial intelligence in the enterprise

 10 top AI and machine learning trends for 2024

 10 top artificial intelligence certifications and courses for 2024

 The future of AI: What to expect in the next 5 years

Indeed, advances in AI techniques have not only helped fuel an explosion in

 Good at detail-oriented jobs. AI has proven to be just as good, if not better

 Reduced time for data-heavy tasks. AI is widely used in data-heavy

 Saves labor and increases productivity. An example here is the use

 AI-powered virtual agents are always available. AI programs do not need

 Requires deep technical expertise.

 Limited supply of qualified workers to build AI tools.

 Reflects the biases of its training data, at scale.

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