Introducing AI

While discussing about Artificial Intelligence, the most important thing is to understand the basic concept of it. It applies to a computer system that is able to operate in a manner similar to that of human intelligence; that is, it can understand natural language and is capable of solving problems, learning, adapting, recognizing, classifying, self-improvement, and reasoning.

But Why AI? The goal of research on artificial intelligence is to understand the nature of thought and intelligent behavior and to design intelligent systems. A computer is not really intelligent; it just follows directions very quickly. At the same time, it is the speed and memory of modern computers that allows researchers to manage the huge quantities of data necessary to model human thought and behavior. An intelligent machine would be more flexible than a computer and would engage in the kind of "thinking" that people actually do. According to the famous Turing Test, proposed in 1950 by British mathematician and logician Alan Turing, a machine would be considered intelligent if it could convince human observers that another human, rather than a machine, was answering their questions in conversation.

Branches of AI:

Some of these may be regarded as concepts or topics rather than full branches.logical AI, search, pattern recognition, representation, inference, common sense knowledge and reasoning, learning from experience, planning, epistemology, ontology, heuristics, genetic programming

Applications of AI:

Game playing, speech recognition, understanding natural language, computer vision, expert systems, heuristic classification.

Areas: Defense, Transportation, Medicine, Manufacturing, Entertainment

Recent Updates:

Fuel injection systems in our cars use learning algorithms. Jet turbines are designed using genetic algorithms. Every cell phone call and e-mail is routed using artificial intelligence,

Future:

Within 30 years, Dr Brooks believes that we will have an understanding of how the human brain works that will give us "templates of intelligence" for developing strong AI and that by 2050, our lives will be populated with all kinds of intelligent robots.

Reference : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2001/artificial_intelligence/1555742.stm