What is AI

Imagine there is a student named Tarun. He wakes up in the morning and asks his smartphone – “What is today’s weather?”

The phone immediately gives him the answer.

Now an important question comes here –
How did the phone understand what Tarun is asking?
Is the phone really understanding his question?

This is where the concept of Artificial Intelligence begins.

Artificial Intelligence means –
“designing machines in such a way that they can understand, learn, and make decisions like humans.”

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Understand a little deeper

When Tarun opens YouTube, he sees videos that he likes.
This is not a coincidence.

The system checks Tarun’s previous data –
what he searched, which videos he watched, how long he watched them.

Then the system decides – “This user will like this content.”

This decision is taken by the machine. This is called Artificial Intelligence.

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Real life examples

• Google Maps analyzes traffic and suggests the best route
• Face Unlock recognizes the user’s face in a mobile
• Chatbots understand user questions and give answers
• YouTube / Netflix recommendation systems show content based on user preference

In all these cases, the machine is not just following instructions, it is learning from data.

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Normal Programming and AI

In normal programming, we give step-by-step instructions to the computer –
“Do this, then do that”

In Artificial Intelligence, we give data to the machine and say – “Do it yourself”

The machine learns patterns and makes decisions on its own. This is the main difference in AI.

“Artificial Intelligence is a technology in which machines are developed in such a way that they can perform human-like tasks such as understanding, learning, and decision making.”

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Starting of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence started with a very simple but deep question.

Alan Turing asked – “Can machines think?”

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Now let us understand this practically. Suppose there is a table, and we say that the table is thinking. But how will we prove that the table is thinking?

The table has no mouth and no gestures. It cannot speak or express its thoughts. So we have no way to know whether the table is really thinking or not.

Now change the situation.

You are a human, a homo sapiens. You can clearly think. But how do you know that your friend is also thinking?

The simple answer is – communication

When you ask a question and your friend gives a correct and meaningful answer,
you conclude that he is thinking.

This idea becomes the foundation of Artificial Intelligence.

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Real-life understanding

You must have seen Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.. There is a patient named Anand Banerjee.

When doctors look at him, they feel that he cannot think. Why? Because he is not speaking, not giving any response, not showing any clear reaction.

From outside, it looks like his mind is not working. But actually, the situation is different.

He is thinking. His brain is working. The problem is that he is not able to communicate. He cannot speak. He cannot show gestures properly. So whatever he is thinking stays inside.

Now think about this carefully.

When we talk to a normal person and ask a question, if he gives the correct answer, we say – yes, he is thinking. But if someone is not able to answer, we quickly assume – maybe he is not thinking.

This is the mistake. Because here the issue is not thinking, the issue is communication. Anand Banerjee’s case clearly shows that a person can think, but still fail to express it.

In real life also, this happens. In some medical conditions like Parkinson’s disease, a person understands everything, but speaking or expressing becomes difficult.

So from outside, it may look like the person is not responding, but inside, thinking is going on. This gives us one very important idea.

We cannot see thinking directly. We can only see responses, and if response is missing, we cannot be sure whether thinking is present or not. This same problem comes in Artificial Intelligence.

If a machine cannot communicate or respond, we cannot say whether it is intelligent or not. So in AI, we do not try to check thinking directly. We check how the system responds. That is why communication becomes the key point in understanding intelligence.

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Important Understanding

From all these examples, one important thing becomes clear –

If a system cannot communicate (verbal or non-verbal), we cannot prove whether it is thinking or not.

To solve this problem, the concept of the Turing Test was introduced in Artificial Intelligence. In this, machine intelligence is judged based on communication. We will see it in the next post.

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Definition of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is a technology in which machines are designed in such a way that they can

• Thinking
• Learning
• Make decisions
• Communicate

Standard definition (for exams) –

“Artificial Intelligence is the branch of computer science that deals with the design of intelligent machines that can perform tasks which normally require human intelligence.”