Artificial intelligence
๐ In short
Artificial intelligence means computer programs that learn from huge numbers of examples, so they can recognize pictures, understand speech, translate from one language to another and answer questions. But it isn't magic or a real mind: it's clever calculation, and it can often be wrong.
๐คฉ Did you know?
- In 1997 a computer called Deep Blue beat the world chess champion.
- Some AI programs have learned from more pictures than a person could see in a whole lifetime.
- Artificial intelligence helps doctors spot some illnesses on X-ray pictures.
- The phrase โartificial intelligenceโ was first used in 1956.
๐ Find out more
๐ How does it learn?
To teach a program to recognize cats, we show it thousands of pictures and tell it: โthis is a catโ and โthis is not a catโ. Little by little it finds the pattern that keeps coming up: pointy ears, whiskers and eyes. Then it can find a cat in a picture it has never seen before.
๐ Where do we find it?
Artificial intelligence is in the voice assistant that answers you on the phone, in automatic translation, in the map that picks the fastest route, and in the camera that finds the face in a photo.
๐ก It can be wrong!
Artificial intelligence learns from the examples we give it, so if the examples are incomplete, it gets things wrong. It can write a sentence that sounds right but is completely wrong. That's why we always check information with a trusted source.
๐ฏ People first
Artificial intelligence is a tool, like a pen or a calculator: it helps us but doesn't think for us. We don't tell it our secrets or personal information, and we ask a grown-up before using it.
๐งญ Training and testing
We split the examples in two: one part to teach the program, and one part we hide from it and then test it with, to see whether it really understood or just memorized the pictures, like a teacher testing you with new exercises.
๐ How do we use it wisely?
We use it to learn, ask questions and explore, but we don't let it do our homework for us, we don't believe everything it says, and we keep our secrets and personal information to ourselves.
๐ See how it works
๐ Key words
- Machine learning
- A way for a computer to learn from examples
- Data
- The examples and information it learns from
- Training
- The stage of teaching the program with examples
๐งช Try it at home
Teach your little brother the difference between fruit and vegetables using only examples, without explaining the rule: show him ten pictures and say what each one is, then test him with new pictures. That's how artificial intelligence learns!
๐งฉ Test yourself
1 How does artificial intelligence learn to recognize cats?
2 Can artificial intelligence be wrong?