Definition and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the capability of computers to perform tasks traditionally executed by humans, such as learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. The objective is to develop machines capable of mimicking human behaviour or intelligence. However, this definition is broad, and differing viewpoints may exist. The primary challenge lies in establishing a consensus on the definition of human intelligence, let alone Artificial Intelligence. Machines operate differently from human brains, yet we anticipate such a capability. They process information in binary (0s and 1s), whereas our brains utilise electrical impulses, which can exhibit similarities [...]

When we consider that very few people understand how AI works. Even those that do understand the mechanism don’t know how the internal decisions it makes are arrived at. This can make people very nervous when we give it the power to make decisions on our behalf. This is the black box paradox. We know all the maths, the coding and the data that goes into an AI model but how it arrives at the prediction is impossible to fathom. Tweaking The problem starts at the beginning, because it starts with random weights. It is then trained and those [...]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is is generally good at one specific task. Whereas Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) could be applied to a wide variety of problems. But there is a growing concern regarding something called singularity where AI becomes super intelligent and takes control over its own destiny. DeepMind DeepMind is a company (owned by Google) that developing AGI. It first developed an ability to play some basic Atari games and then moved onto, what is considered almost impossible for AI, the game of GO. Then they moved past that and tackled another seemingly impossible challenge ‘protein folding’.  What they [...]

Sentient machines There is so much in the press these days about self driving or autonomous cars. With the advancement of Artificial Intelligence especially around Large Language Models that give the impression that they are human. Some people think that these machines are already self aware, a Google employee was sacked because he was convinced that the LLM he was working on was afraid that it might be switched off. He described it as being sentient and that it has rights. If a machine was truly sentient it would have opinions of its own, wouldn’t it? What would happen [...]

The feeling in the media is that this is already here but I suspect that is based mainly on hype, movies/films, TV series and the like as well as a good dose of ignorance about AI. Yet clearly there are great strides being made in the world of AI apparently. Mostly this is to do with accessibility and application. The technology is improving to such an extent that it is very, very easy to use and access. But that doesn’t mean it is becoming more self aware even if it feels it when it is talking to you as a [...]

ChatGPT and Bard (and the like) are not really AI, they don’t think for themselves, they regurgitate information. They do it incredibly well, almost life like but they have no concept of what they are writing. They don’t have independent thought or motive, they simply sit there until you ask them a question. There is so much speculation that they are getting closer to Artificial General Intelligence or some sort of sentience (a sense of being alive). Yet they are very powerful but they are just guessing what the next word is in a sentence. They are very powerful tools [...]