What is Artificial Intelligence?
The Definition of Artificial Intelligence is Vague
Even researchers have not been able to give a precise definition of the term “Artificial Intelligence”.
What is “artificial”? What is the difference between a person and a machine?
What is “intelligence”? What is intelligence?
The definition of the term “artificial intelligence” is not easy, because first of all, we need to define “intelligence”.
In Wikipedia, it is defined as follows
Artificial intelligence (AI) is “a field of computer science that studies intelligence using the concept of ‘computation’ and the tool of ‘computer’. The term “computer science” refers to “a branch of computer science that studies intelligence using the concept of ‘computation’ and the tool of ‘computer. The term “artificial intelligence” is also used to refer to “technology that allows computers to perform intelligent actions such as language understanding, reasoning, and problem solving on behalf of humans”[2], or “a research field related to the design and implementation of intelligent information processing systems by computers”[3].
Artificial intelligence (October 17, 2020, 10:00 UTC), Wikipedia.
For now, I think it is enough to recognize it as “machines and their technologies that perform intelligent processing similar to humans”.
Classification of Artificial Intelligence
Strong Artificial Intelligence” and “Weak Artificial Intelligence”.
A term coined by philosopher John Searle.
It is said that artificial intelligence can be roughly classified into “strong artificial intelligence” and “weak artificial intelligence”.
Strong artificial intelligence
A machine that mimics human intelligence itself and has a similar cognitive state.
A machine that can think like a human and act autonomously.
To put it concretely, it is something like “Doraemon” or “Terminator”.
Recently, humanoids such as Iz from Kamen Rider 01 are also included in strong artificial intelligence.
They are beyond the realm of so-called “just programmed that way,” and act autonomously, aren’t they?
But as you can imagine, strong artificial intelligence is currently a fictional entity, and does not yet exist in reality. Kizuna Ai? I don’t know what you’re talking about…
It is said that a strong AI that has the computing power of a machine and the intelligence of a human will surpass humans and bring about the Singularity.
There are many theories about the definition of singularity, but this article interprets it as “AI that surpasses humans will be able to create AI that is superior to itself.
Weak artificial intelligence
A machine that imitates human behavior and replaces some of its capabilities.
It only imitates and acts as if it has intelligence, but it does not have thoughts and cannot act autonomously.
Examples include the Go AI program “Alpha Go” developed by Google and the natural language processing program “Siri” developed by Apple.
These remain in the realm of “just programmed that way,” and cannot act autonomously.
They may look like they are doing something, but they are only programmed to do so.
Of course, these are real, and many of them have been put to practical use.
Also, artificial intelligence that partially surpasses human capabilities, such as the Alpha Go mentioned above, already exists.
General-purpose artificial intelligence” and “specialized artificial intelligence
General-purpose artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence that can handle a variety of tasks in the same way as humans.
Even when unexpected events occur, it has the ability to make comprehensive judgments based on experience and solve problems.
Specialized artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence that specializes in a specific task.
It is not capable of responding to unexpected events.
The focus is different, but
General-purpose artificial intelligence ≒ Strong artificial intelligence
Specialized artificial intelligence ≒ Weak artificial intelligence
We can think of it as follows.
Conclusion
The definition of artificial intelligence is actually not clearly defined.
There are “strong artificial intelligence” and “weak artificial intelligence” as a classification focused on intelligence.
There are “general-purpose artificial intelligence” and “specialized artificial intelligence” as a classification focused on the field.
The strong artificial intelligence that everyone thinks of (like Doraemon) is still a long way off.
On the other hand, artificial intelligence that partially surpasses humans has already been created.