9781422275115

Chapter 1

WHAT DO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SCIENTISTS DO? THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Driverless vehicles. Alexa. Siri. Nest. Drones. These are just a few examples of products or systems that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI). The use of AI is helping companies save time and money, and it is making our lives easier and providing us with more free time. But what actually is “artificial intelligence?” Let’s break down the phrase. “Intelligence” is the brain power that humans and any other living organism use to accomplish daily tasks, solve problems, and do many other things. “Artificial” is something that is created to stand in for the original product or action. So, AI is the simulation of human intelligence (perceiving, reasoning, learning, problem solving, etc.) by machinery and computer systems. But it is much more than that. Artificial intelligence scientists seek to teach computers to not only think, learn, and act like humans, but to eventually do so without any human interaction. We’re a long way from doing

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