What is artificial intelligence?« Back to Questions List

Intelligence may have a lot of definitions. One among them is the ability to think, react and respond to a situation. Humans have the tendency to learn, apply thought, learn from previous results and make correct decisions. Artificial intelligence (AI) is all about making machines intelligent by programming them to work as if they were human.

Artificial intelligence began in 1950 by a scientist Allen Newell as experimental field. Ever since, lots of innovations are happening in this field. Video games, robotics, medical diagnosis, toys and many more applications are based on Artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence minimizes the need for human intervention for applications where machines are programmed to act intelligently. Today computers can do innumerable tasks with intelligence with the help of necessary input from its user.

We live in a modern world where most of the sectors including banking, railways, telecommunications, airways, weather systems and lots more have been automated using Artificial intelligence. For instance, Artificial intelligence used in automated railway enquiry system provides information about the arrival or departure timings at different stations without human intervention when provided with proper inputs like train number, station code. Reservation availability can also be checked using the automated system. Tickets can be booked on a computer. Automated banking systems help detect credit card fraud, transfer money, check account balance and multiple other operations related to accounts maintenance.

Artificial intelligence became a boon to game developers. Lots of video games are thought to act according to the opponent’s moves. A computer chess game ‘Deep Blue’ has got the pride of having once defeated world champion Gary Kasparov. Artificial intelligence also helps physicians in medical diagnosis in prescribing treatments and also monitoring patients.

Apart from computer programming, robotics is yet another branch of Artificial intelligence. Robots are electro mechanical machines that can be programmed to accomplish specific tasks. The whole idea behind robotics is to replace human from performing monotonous as well as dangerous tasks. They are used in military, mining, research labs, automobile manufacturing industries, for precision cutting, detecting nuclear leaks, assisting in brain surgeries etc.

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