What is Artificial Intelligence capable of doing?

José Hernández-Orallo, is a professor at the Universidad de Valencia and participated in the HUMAINT seminar of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC-CAS). He outlines the main applications of Artificial Intelligence:

• Knowledge representation through ontologies, different types of logic or probable inference (X is a bird, so X can fly)
• Temporary programming and planning as well as probabilistic planning
• Machine learning: linear models, decision trees, neural networks
• Pattern recognition
• Computer vision, facial recognition, biometrics
• Language processing: speech recognition, natural language generation, summarization, retrieval, translation, tagging, sentiment analysis, etc.

Artificial Intelligence waves

The Chinese investor and AI guru Kai-Fu Lee places the development of this set of technologies into four different waves:

1. The Internet of AI: the first chapter of implementation, fed by the large amount of data that flows through the web. This data creates detailed profiles of our personalities, habits, demands and desires–the perfect recipe for the creation of personalized content to keep us on a given platform or maximize revenue or profits.

2. Business Intelligence: AI that can explore hidden correlations that escape our linear, cause-and-effect logic. These technologies can perform better than even the most seasoned experts.

3. Intelligent perception: technology that can now see, listen and use thousands of other senses. It collects data that has never been collected before, which is used to create new applications. Intelligent devices and sensors, such as voice interfaces or computer vision applications, are a few examples.

4. Autonomous AI: “the most monumental as well as complex wave,” according to Lee. This wave includes the three prior ones. The results will be machines that can feel and respond to the world around them. They will be able to move intuitively and handle objects with the same ease as a human being. For now, autonomous vehicles are the most cutting-edge example of this technology.

A multitude of possible applications stem for AI’s various capabilities. What is already possible? How are we using and incorporating it, both actively and passively, into our businesses and everyday lives?