Foundations of Artificial Intelligence – 2023

An Intuitive Framework for understanding Artificial Intelligence

Foundations of Artificial Intelligence – Few technologies have captured the human imagination, similar to artificial intelligence. Stories of intelligent robots and artificial beings have pervaded our myths and legends since antiquity. Sparking excitement and fear as our ancestors considered the existence of autonomous machines.

Unfortunately, these myths continue to influence the narrative surrounding AI. Though we’re closer to developing artificial general intelligence than ever, it cannot be easy to separate fact from fiction, given today’s buzzword-laden media.

While certain use cases are arguably overhyped, AI has the potential to transform every aspect of how we work, play, and live. This post lays the groundwork for understanding technology by defining it and explaining how it impacts our rapidly changing world. Simplify the AI ​​space into his five core research areas. Bringing each field of study to life with anecdotes and examples

Definitions and Motivations

Artificial intelligence is the automation of activities normally ascribed to human thought and rationality, such as problem-solving, decision-making, and learning. AI exists at the boundaries of many classical disciplines, including philosophy, neuroscience, behavioral economics, computer science, and mechanical engineering. These interdisciplinary roots help explain why AI has captured our imagination. This burgeoning field of study offers something for people of all interests and backgrounds.

Business Impact

AI will impact career paths over the next decade. While most industries are still in the early stages of proof-of-concept (POC) development. Many early adopters are already beginning to reap the rewards. For example, in one study, investigators found that F500 companies that actively adopted AI technology had 3-15% higher self-reported margins than their competitors.

Early signs of these successes are a wave of investment, VC, and Corp. willingness to develop. A sector that spends billions of dollars each year developing and scaling new AI capabilities. This funding has significantly increased the demand for data scientists, ML engineers, and new educational models.

It’s always wise to have a strong dose of skepticism about funding statistics, and it’s unclear if these trends will continue in a bear market. Still, the dynamics behind these trends suggest AI will impact the business world long term. But while AI has the potential to speed up and improve our daily lives in ways we haven’t yet discovered. It can remain exploited and abused just as easily.

Societal Implications

AI will have far-reaching effects on our society, even outside the office. AI has the potential to speed up and improve our daily lives in ways we haven’t yet discovered. but it can be misused just as easily. The concept of “artificial superintelligence” (known in the research community as artificial general intelligence or AGI) is particularly controversial.

Autonomous agents like Terminator and Ex Machina are still decades away from being developed, but many thought leaders are already debating it. The existential threat of superhuman AI. Yet, in one corner, Stanford professor and deeplearning.ai CEO Andrew Ng is optimistic about AI’s role in society.

AI Foundations for Everyone Specialization

The AI Foundations for Everyone Specialization is a series of three courses. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Getting Started with AI Using IBM Watson, and Building AI-Powered Chatbots Without Programming  that will introduce you to the world of AI. At the end of this program, you will have mastered the basics of AI and understand how this technology will transform our society.

A great place to start even for people who lack a technical or programming background, this specialization suits everyone, from students to IT professionals.

Applied AI: Artificial Intelligence with IBM Watson Specialization

The Applied AI: Artificial Intelligence with IBM Watson Specialization is a somewhat more advanced program that will teach you how to create AI-powered applications. Even if you have no programming background, you will quickly grasp the ropes of Python. The AI world’s most widely used programming language.

Comprised of all six courses listed above, this specialization will provide you with plenty of practical examples and use cases.

Building AI Applications with Watson APIs

One of the most interesting features of Watson AI is that you can use its services and APIs to create smart applications with close to zero coding skills. However, since you’re already skilled in Python, you can easily apply your newly acquired knowledge to exploit the full potential of IBM’s popular AI.

In particular, this course will teach you how to leverage Watson services (assistant, discovery, speech to text, and text to speech), combine them. And create interactive information retrieval systems.

Python for Data Science and AI

The word “beginner” usually has a negative connotation. If you want to reach the next level in your learning journey, this course is the one you need. Python is the programming language most data scientists love and prefer, and for many reasons.

Knowing how to manipulate Python, its data structures, and programming fundamentals is critical if you want to speak the same language the machines speak. This simple and accessible course will take you from zero to programming in Python in just a few hours 17 in total, to be exact.

Completing this course will also count towards your  Applied Data Science Specialization learning.

Conclusion

Russell and Norvig’s framework offers a useful structure for thinking about AI. But these five categories remain not meant to remain mutually exclusive. The most exciting innovations of the last decade have occurred within their intersections.