INTRODUCTION TO THE APPLICATION AND BENEFITS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO HUMAN LIFE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
According to wikipedia (2015), artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence exhibited by machines or software. It is also the name of the academic field of study in computer science which studies how to create computers and computer software that are capable of intelligent behavior. Major artificial intelligence researchers and other sources define this field as the study and design of intelligent agents, in which an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. John McCarthy, who coined the term as far back as 1955, defines it as the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.
Artificial intelligence is a branch of Computer Science concerned with the study and creation of computer systems. Artificial intelligence exhibits some form of intelligence by way of introducing systems that learn new concepts and tasks and also have the ability to reason and draw useful conclusions about the world. Artificial intelligence systems also can understand a natural language or perceive and comprehend a visual scene, and perform other types of feats that require human types of intelligence (Freitas, 1999).
Artificial intelligence research is highly technical and specialized, and is deeply divided into subfields that often fail to communicate with each other. Some of the division is due to social and cultural factors: subfields have grown up around particular institutions and the work of individual researchers (Drexler, 1986). Artificial intelligence research is also divided by several technical issues. Some subfields focus on the solution of specific problems. Others focus on one of several possible approaches or on the use of a particular tool or towards the accomplishment of particular applications. The central problems (or goals) of artificial intelligence research include reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, natural language processing (communication), perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. General intelligence is still among the field’s long-term goals (Bostrom, 2002). Currently popular approaches include statistical methods, computational intelligence and traditional symbolic artificial intelligence. There are a large number of tools used in artificial intelligence, including versions of search and mathematical optimization, logic, methods based on probability and economics, and many others. The artificial intelligence field is interdisciplinary, in which a number of sciences and professions converge, including computer science, mathematics, psychology, linguistics, philosophy and neuroscience, as well as other specialized fields such as artificial psychology (Hanson, 1998).
