The term artificial denotes made, produced or done by Humans to seem like something natural. It is also defined as not sincere or spontaneous behavior.
Intelligence denotes capacity for logic, abstraction, understanding, learning, reasoning, planning, creative thinking , problem solving etc.
Does this mean artificial intelligence is human activity to produce something which is like what results we would have got by using natural logic, abstraction, reasoning, creative thinking etc.?
If you are a keen information seeker, and if you read the product labels on food or pharmaceutical products, there are flavoring substances used with category as “ Natural,” “Nature Identical” or “Synthetic.” The category of substance available in nature, one which is available in nature but manufactured synthetically, and one which is not available in nature and manufactured purely synthetically respectively. I correlate Artificial Intelligence like “Nature Identical.” So, intelligence can be “Natural,” “ Nature Identical” and in future we may hear the “Synthetic” variety.
With advent of “systems” the data generation is huge and one can analyze, synthesize, reciprocate to generate another set of data/information which will assist you in making correct (more or less) decision faster. When the calculator machines were introduced , the use started with apprehension but the use become rampant and now we even do not attempt to do mental calculations. Same thing happened with Internet and mobile phones. Now we even do not try to remember, memorize, recall things, facts etc. and whenever need arises approach internet to fetch the required information. The programming, algorithms, logic etc. used to generate the information via Artificial Intelligence is ultimately done by a human with an aim to save resources like time, money, etc. and give information which will help to do things faster, with less errors, with less resources. Basically, to do more with less.
The systems developed are prone to errors as they are being developed by humans and which undergo corrections based on the learning developed over the time , I would say this as Deep Learning by Humans which is natural phenomenon.
I remember, way back in late 70’s or early 80’s , when we were learning Fortran II & IV, our professor narrated the computer program developed to assist a person in crossing the road. The person will get instruction from the computer based on information provided by him and he need to act on the instructions which will assist him in crossing the road. This is based on the Indian condition, and hence once the person stood on the pavement for crossing the road, the first question by computer was “ Look at the right , is there a vehicle you can see on your right?”, the answer was “Yes,” the computer reply was “wait for a minute” and again same question is asked and the answer was again “Yes.” This went on and on, and for hours person could not cross the road. Ultimately it was found that, there is a vehicle on the right side of the person, but it was a parked vehicle !!. So, the program was changed to ask, whether vehicle is moving or parked and so on and on ….
Coming back to Artificial Intelligence it will help in faster decisions as the basic set of inference is drawn from the data set available and conditions for analysis are set ,to take the decision. So, I would rather say that it is not Artificial intelligence but it is Assisted Insights . You are taking assistance from the system to churn, crunch, synthesize, analyze, etc. the large amount of data and suggest for likely action based on the insights derived from data. So, it is more of Assisted Insights than Artificial Intelligence.
There are Pro’s and Con’s for the use of AI specially from supply chain angle which I will try to cover in next blog ….
