Foundation of AI

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence:
Introduction, History, Intelligent Systems, Foundations of AI, Applications, Tic-tac toe game playing, development of AI languages, Current trends in AI.

1. Artificial Intelligence

❑ Modeling human cognition or mental faculties using computers
❑ Study of making computers do things which at the moment peopleare
better
❑ Making computers do things which require intelligence

1.1 More Formal Definition of AI

◼ AI is a branch of computer science which is concerned with the study and creation of computer systems that exhibit some form of intelligence
OR
those characteristics which we associate with intelligence in human behavior

AI is a broad area consisting of different fields, from machine vision, expert systems to the creation of machines that can "think".

In order to classify machines as "thinking", it is necessary to define intelligence.

2.History

The history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) began in antiquity, with myths, stories and rumors of artificial beings endowed with intelligence or consciousness by master craftsmen. The seeds of modern AI were planted by classical philosophers who attempted to describe the process of human thinking as the mechanical manipulation of symbols. This work culminated in the invention of the programmable digital
computer in the 1940s, a machine based on the abstract essence of mathematical reasoning. This device and the ideas behind it inspired a handful of scientists to begin seriously discussing the possibility of building an electronic brain.

The field of AI research was founded at a workshop held on the campus of Dartmouth College during the summer of 1956. Those who attended would become the leaders of AI research for decades. Many of them predicted that a machine as intelligent as a human being would exist in no more than a generation and they were given millions of dollars to make this vision come true.
Eventually, it became obvious that they had grossly underestimated the difficulty of the project. In 1973, in response to the criticism from James Lighthill and ongoing pressure from congress, the U.S. and British Governments stopped funding undirected research into artificial intelligence, and the difficult years that followed would later be known as an "AI winter". Seven years later, a visionary initiative by
the Japanese Government inspired governments and industry to provide AI with billions of dollars, but by the late 80s the investors became disillusioned by the absence of the needed computer power (hardware) and withdrew funding again.

In the 1980s a form of AI program called "expert systems" was adopted by corporations around the world and knowledge became the focus of mainstream AI research. In those same years, the Japanese government aggressively funded AI with its fifth generation computer project. Another encouraging event in the early 1980s was the revival of connectionism in the work of John Hopfield and David
Rumelhart. Once again, AI had achieved success.

In the first decades of the 21st century, access to large amounts of data (known as "big data"), cheaper and faster computers and advanced machine learning techniques were successfully applied to many problems throughout the economy. In fact, McKinsey Global Institute estimated in their famous paper "Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity" that "by 2009, nearly all
sectors in the US economy had at least an average of 200 terabytes of stored data".

3. What is Intelligence?

◼ Intelligence is a property of mind that encompasses many related mental
abilities, such as the capabilities to
❑ reason
❑ plan
❑ solve problems
❑ think abstractly
❑ comprehend ideas and language and
❑ learn

3.1. Characteristics of AI systems

◼ learn new concepts and tasks
◼ reason and draw useful conclusions about the world around us
❑ remember complicated interrelated facts and draw conclusionsfrom
them (inference)
◼ understand a natural language or perceive and comprehend a visual
scene
❑ look through cameras and see what's there (vision), to move
themselves and objects around in the real world (robotics)
◼ plan sequences of actions to complete a goal
◼ offer advice based on rules and situations
◼ may not necessarily imitate human senses and thought processes
❑ but indeed, in performing some tasks differently, they may actually
exceed human abilities
◼ capable of performing intelligent tasks effectively and efficiently
◼ perform tasks that require high levels of intelligence