Did you know that Artificial Intelligence or AI short has a far longer history than you thought? It started long before Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Tesla and similar apps became big players in the industry.
History
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be traced back to the antiques where master craftsmen told myths, stories and rumors about of artificial beings with intelligence or consciousness. Studying logic and formal reasoning from antiquity to the present inspired scientist to discus the possibility of building an electronic brain and invention of the programmable digital computer in the 1940s.
Modern studies and research can be linked to Alan Turing and his theory of computation, where he suggested that a machine can solve mathematical problems by shuffling binary code.
The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence or also simply known as the Dartmouth workshop was organized by John McCarthy in 1956 is considered to be the founding event of AI as a field. Its attendees became the leaders of AI research in the next decades.
Throughout the early stages AI as a research field had its ups and downs. In 1974 the US and British Governments stopped funding research in this fields until an initiative by the Japanese Government led to the success of expert systems making it a billion dollar industry in the late 1980s.
Applying machine learning in academics and industry in the early 2000s revolutionized this field. That was possible through availability of more powerful computer hardware, collection of data sets and application of solid mathematical methods.
The boom of investment in AI in the 2020s and development of transformer architecture led to rapid scaling and public release of large language models (LLMs) which exhibit almost human like traits. One of those LLMs is ChatGPTT developed by OpenAI in 2020 and capable of generating human like text. With over 100 million users in 2 months after its launch on November 30 2022, ChatGPT became the fastest growing consumer software in history. This and similar software inspired large companies to invest billions of dollars in AI research.
Application
There is almost no limitation to where AI can be applied, from everyday items and technologies to large scale processes in business or since. Task automation or personalization of experiences are some areas where AI is used nowadays.
Here are some areas where artificial intelligence is used.
Daily life
- Smart digital devices: Siri and Alexa which are voice activated assistants use AI to understand and respond to commands. Robot vacuum cleaners navigate your home with the help of AI.
- Search engines: Autocomplete, refined search and personalized suggestions is where search engines use AI to enhance the user experiences.
- Social media: Filtering content, serving targeted ads and post recommendation are some of the main areas where social media platforms rely on AI.
- E-commerce: With AI online shops show personalized products and can optimize prices in real time.
Business and industry
- Finance: By analyzing transaction patterns financial institutions use AI to detect fraud.
- Medical industry: Sometimes AI can detect diseases more accurate than humans by analyzing patient data.
- Transportation and logistics: In self driving cars, for example, AI is used for navigation and route optimization. In ride sharing apps artificial intelligence can be used to calculate arrival time or set fare rates.
- Manufacturing: More and more large factories rely on robots and automation to improve production speed and safety on assembly lines.
- Customer service: With AI chatbots and virtual agents offer 24/7 customer support and process inquiries.
Education
- Education: Personalizing learning experiences by adapting the content to a students learning style and pace. For students with disabilities AI can provide accessibility tools.
- Entertainment and media: Netflix and Spotify are companies who use recommendation engines to suggest new content to their users.
Not long ago artificial intelligence or [AI](Artificial intelligence - Wikipedia was only an idea of a small group of people. Through its development and advancement it slowly becomes a part of life of each of us if we want it or not. Through my posts and content for readers in the freelance community, work from home moms, stay at home dads and entrepreneurs I want to find free websites, tools and services to aid you in your daily work.