Wtf i s AI?

Artificial Intelligence will intertwine itself into our homes, phones, cities and relationships, but as is often the case with a lot of these high- tech terms, a lot of us still don’t know what the word actually means when asked to distil it down to one definition. In a bid to educate the public, we reached out to some industry leaders and asked how they define Artificial Intelligence. Definitions they came up with included: “I define AI as apparently intelligent behaviour indistinguishable from that of a human. It doesn't really matter if it is actually conscious or not, only that we feel it is; humans are very good at projecting human traits onto even inanimate objects( of course, not everything we currently call AI is indistinguishable but we are getting there ). The most interesting thing about AI is that it forces us to think about what truly defines us as humans and what it meansmea to be a good human .”– poet, novelist and technologist Dr Helen Heath. “When we talk about artificial intelligence today it is computer software, and we are speakingspea about a set of specific technologies from a range of tech companies iinc lu dingnc lu IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. But the power in the computer so software is the algorithms that allow them to complete tasks and make decisidecisions. So, when we perceive these decisions or tasks performed by computers as intelligent or human-like, that’s when society starts using the term Artificial InIntelligence.” – Spacetime founder Alex Catt. “Artificial A intelligence is computer code that learn sand adapt sin a similar way to the human mind. It's software's super- charged cousin: the difference between the wind- up toy that will spin its wheels against a closed door and the robot that figures out how to open the door and let the cat in. With standard computer software, you need to learn its language. With artificial intelligence, it learns yours .”– Tech Futures Lab general manager Sarah Hindle. Why this matters: New technology can be scary, and i t’s especially frightening when you don’t understand what it means, or its implications for humanity. In order to best prepare for a future where business leaders will have to make some important decisions surrounding super-intelligent machines, it’ s important we get the definitions right first and foremost. Or as Hindle put sit :" In an ideal world, AI, machine learning and data science will relieve us of the monotonous aspects of work and have potential contribute to more inclusive decision-making, but for this to happen, business leaders need to understand it and figure out how best to work with and alongside it ."