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Answering 10 Most Commonly Asked Questions About Artificial Intelligence

Providing solutions to AI problems, clarifying misconceptions, and discussing various notions about AI

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

Artificial Intelligence is one of the major talking points of our century. The capabilities and limitless potential of AI lead to several fun conversations and debates.

The rise in the popularity of Artificial Intelligence welcomes a lot of new eyes to AI. It ranges from enthusiasts with a growing passion for learning more about AI to aspirants looking forward to exploring the field or just other people who want to criticize it. But, regardless of which spectrum you lie on, there are several questions that run through your mind.

In this article, we look forward to answering some of the most commonly asked questions about Artificial Intelligence. The aim is to answer both aspects, including all the practical points, and clarify any doubts an individual may have concerning this topic. Let us briefly look at the various questions that we will try to tackle in this post today.

  1. What is Artificial Intelligence?
  2. How powerful is AI?
  3. Will AI steal your jobs?
  4. Can AI take over the world?
  5. What are the pros of AI?
  6. What are the cons of AI?
  7. How close are we to achieve AGI?
  8. What are the applications of AI?
  9. Do you need to be a genius to start learning AI?
  10. How to get started with AI?

You can feel free to skip ahead to the question that you want most answered. However, it is highly recommended that you follow along with the entire article if you don’t want to miss any specific points. Now, let us look forward to answering the ten most commonly asked questions about AI.


1. What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence is when a software or a particular model developed can perform complex tasks on its own without requiring any assistance from humans. The more formal definition of AI can be stated as follows:

"The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages."

Artificial Intelligence is a humungous field of study consisting of various sub-fields, including machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, computer vision, natural language processing, and so much more.

Artificial Intelligence is believed to be the technology of the future that can combat numerous problems in a variety of fields ranging from robotics, medical sciences, logistics and transportation, finances, and tons more utility services in industries.

I would highly recommend checking out the following article about demystifying Artificial Intelligence from the link provided below to gauge a more superior understanding of this field.

Demystifying Artificial Intelligence!


2. How powerful is AI?

To answer this question, let us briefly look at the complex history of Artificial Intelligence, especially the field of neural networks. The concept of AI and its limitless abilities were gauged almost a few decades ago. AI was expected to be the next big thing to provide solutions to existing problems.

With the passing of time, people realized that Artificial Intelligence wasn’t as simple as expected. And to perform complex activities would almost be impossible, especially with the existing technologies during that period.

Initially, AI wasn’t as successful as it was deemed to be due to the lack of data as well as the technological resources to withstand the capacity of performing complex permutations and combinations.

However, during our current era, we have come to the conclusion that Artificial Intelligence is the potential future to create a revolutionary world. AI can even solve certain complex tasks, which would probably take humans more time comparatively.

The simple answer to the question – "How powerful is AI?" in the modern era depends on the capability of the researcher working on the computation of the program. The skill of the developer helps make the AI model sufficiently good enough to solve a particularly complex task as soon as possible.

With the rise of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), you can help compute AI models faster and develop innovative stuff. As of right now, AI is quite powerful to solve a set of tasks that is assigned to it efficiently and effectively. However, it hasn’t reached its peak yet, and we are a few years away from that point.


3. Will AI steal your jobs?

Artificial Intelligence is the fastest-growing field in the present-day. According to fortune, the statistics say that the hirings for AI specialists have grown by 74% over the last 4 years. Artificial Intelligence is regarded as the "Hottest" job of the present generation.

The demand for skilled AI specialists is growing faster like never before. Requirements and open positions for experts in the sub-fields of AI like machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, statistics, and natural language processing are surging each day.

The question that arises naturally is will AI become that powerful eventually that it has the capacity to steal all our jobs?

This statement that AI will steal your jobs in the future can almost be considered a myth, in my opinion. It is a hypothetical scenario where Artificial Intelligence will replace all human activities and take over a majority of the tasks of the modern world because they are less prone to human error and perform the particular task more efficiently.

Similar things were stated during the times of the industrial revolution when machines were introduced. Obviously, it did not steal job opportunities. Instead, it paved the way for more jobs for humans to control them. Humans are intellectual beings. Hence, AI will simplify the complexity of human work but won’t actually take away your jobs!


4. Can AI take over the world?

Photo by Philipp Katzenberger on Unsplash
Photo by Philipp Katzenberger on Unsplash

Science fiction (Sci-fi) movies have changed some people’s perception of Artificial Intelligence. They image robots programmed with AI will become so powerful that they will eventually destroy their creator and destroy the entire world leading to the development of a new AI-controlled species.

An intriguing storyline, but untrue for it to realistically occur anytime in the near future!

It is undeniable that Artificial Intelligence has come a long way and developed into a unique feature of the modern world. Despite the advancements in AI, most of the tasks are still done under some kind of human supervision in the working or the development stages.

Artificial Intelligence is also limited to be the particular task that it is programmed to complete. An interesting example is self-driving cars, where AI takes control of the car and drives it to the desired destination of the user’s choice. However, the AI is only limited to the driving of the car precisely and no other external tasks.

So, for AI take over the world as shown in the sci-fi movies, we are still at least a few decades away from such an outcome. But, just to keep the curiosity around this speculation, it could eventually be possible in the future! Although currently, this is only fiction.


5. What are the pros of AI?

Since the hype generated for Artificial Intelligence in the modern era is humungous, it has a wide array of merits.

Apart from the previously discussed massive job opportunities created by AI, it also has other pros, such as the completion of looping or repetitive tasks that humans need to perform without the disadvantage of a human-prone error.

Artificial Intelligence, similar to a computer program, cannot tire and hence has the capacity to work all day long on a particular task until the desired results are accomplished.

They have the ability to perform faster computations compared to human speed on a wide range of problems with precise results. They also have tons of real-life applications to make our daily lives simpler. The pros of Artificial Intelligence are self-explanatory and limitless.


6. What are the cons of AI?

The construction of Artificial Intelligence models from scratch can sometimes be time-consuming and resourcefully exhaustive. If you are looking to develop a deep learning model on a normal computer without a GPU, your alternative would be to switch to a cloud platform because the building procedure of the model is not sustainable on your PC.

Apart from consuming a lot of time and resources, the deployment of Artificial Intelligence models can also be quite expensive in some cases. Also, the maintenance costs in case of malfunctioning of the AI models in peculiar cases can be annoying to deal with and solve.

Another significant demerit of Artificial Intelligence to consider is the lack of the use of Artificial General Intelligence to accomplish more superior and intellectual tasks. We are limited to Artificial Narrow Intelligence. ANI is beneficial and essential for performing numerous tasks, but it is not quite effective as AGI. This point leads us to our next question.


7. How close are we to achieve AGI?

Photo by Andrew George on Unsplash
Photo by Andrew George on Unsplash

Artificial General Intelligence is an intriguing concept. AGI is when an Artificial Intelligence program can compute, evaluate, and work on multiple tasks with human-level integrity and intellectuality.

Despite continuous research work and technological advancements, the field of Artificial General Intelligence has not yet achieved productive results. The experimentation and investigation regarding this concept are continuously being evaluated, hoping for a better result in the near future.

According to experts, the main reason Artificial General Intelligence has not yet been possible and accomplished is due to the fact that it is almost impossible to replicate the human brain.

Though neural networks perform a magnificent job at performing the specific complicated tasks that they are assigned, they are unfortunately not a replacement for the human brain.


8. What are the applications of AI?

Artificial Intelligence in the natural world has a wide variety of applications. These include your journey from the start of the day till the end of the day. When you usually start your day with your smartphone, you make use of the AI capabilities of smart face lock or other fingerprint AI measures to unlock your phone.

Then you decide to google something, you are greeted with AI features of autocomplete and autocorrect, which utilizes technologies of sequence to sequence modeling. Apart from smartphones, Artificial Intelligence has tons of other applications, including email spam detection, chatbots, object character recognition, and so much more.

Artificial Intelligence also finds its applications in many other fields, such as topics ranging from robotics, medical sciences, logistics and transportation, finances, and tons more utility services in industries.

To check out ten awesome real-world applications of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, I would highly recommend checking out one of my previous articles from the following link.

10 Awesome Real-World Applications Of Data Science And AI


9. Do you need to be a genius to start learning AI?

This questions holds a simple answer – "No, you don’t!"

Artificial Intelligence is a fabulous field containing a lot of spectacular sub-fields. It is totally worth investing your precious time to gain further knowledge in the subject of AI if you are particularly interested in the various intriguing concepts that are offered by the following subject.

While learning AI from scratch might sometimes be hard at the beginning, it becomes more interesting and cool as you proceed to invest more time learning numerous concepts related to AI. You will gain exposure to mathematics, programming, Machine Learning, and so much more that will expand your vast knowledge.

Even if you find that the field of Artificial Intelligence is not suitable for your particular interests, that is still totally fine as long as you learn something about the numerous topics of AI.

The best part about getting your hands wet with Artificial Intelligence is that the knowledge you gain from the following subject can be partially or completely utilized for various software applications and jobs as well.


10. How to get started with AI?

Alright! So by this point, you are hopefully fascinated by the various features of Artificial Intelligence, and you are excited to look for a great place to get started with Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence is a vast and humungous field. But, don’t worry! There are tons of valuable resources and productive material that you can utilize to produce the best possible results. You can gain a wide arena of knowledge just by analyzing and studying the materials on the internet.

Websites like Stack overflow, Data stack exchange, and GitHub, are some of the most popular sites to receive in-depth solutions and answers to the problems or errors that you are encountering with the running or installation of your program or the respective code blocks.

I would recommend checking out the first link provided in the conclusion section of this article to learn more about the "10 Best Free Websites To Learn More About Data Science And Machine Learning." It should be a great starting point for analyzing various viewpoints while gaining a lot of knowledge from the resources.

I would also highly recommend checking out one of my articles that is a 23-minute guide on how to master data science in 12 months in 12 basic steps following one step each month. You can access the article from the link provided below.

12 Steps For Beginner To Pro In Data Science In 12 Months!


Conclusion:

Photo by NASA on Unsplash
Photo by NASA on Unsplash

In this article, we covered most of the commonly asked questions about Artificial Intelligence while trying to provide sustainable information and solutions to numerous AI topics. We also aimed to clarify misconceptions and discuss various notions about AI.

After reading this article, I hope all of the viewers have a clear picture of Artificial Intelligence and the numerous topics about AI. Gaining a realistic perception of AI is significant to understand the changes that will occur in the revolutionary future of the world.

Hence, it is essential to know the intricate details and be knowledgeable on the subject of Artificial Intelligence to avoid false notions and other misconceptions. Also, understanding AI and working on securing a future in AI is a gratifying experience. It is a fresh field with lots of new opportunities and discoveries ahead.

If you have any queries related to the various points stated in this article, then feel free to let me know in the comments below. I will try to get back to you with a response as soon as possible.

Check out some of my other articles that you might enjoy reading!

10 Best Free Websites To Learn More About Data Science And Machine Learning!

Pros And Cons Of Data Science In 2021

11 Crucial Mistakes To Avoid As A Data Scientist!

8 Revolutionary Artificial Intelligence Technologies Of The Modern Era!

Mastering Dictionaries And Sets In Python!

Thank you all for sticking on till the end. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this article. I wish you all have a wonderful day ahead!


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