Artificial Intelligence

This topic offers a broad overview of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and specifically defines AI terminology, lists some of the AI products available, provides commercial examples and government uses of AI, describes some of the AI trends expected to mature in 2019 and beyond, enumerates some of the major concerns that AI raises, presents and organized flow chart describing the decision process for implementing AI and links for additional reading.

Summary

The Definitions section provides an overview of AI and specific definitions of commonly used terminology associated with the various types of AI. These terms describing the types of AI appear throughout the Topic in various contexts.

The Products section is designed to familiarize the reader with some the tools used in the production of AI in an operational environment.

The Commercial Examples section presents examples of the current daily use of AI of different types in diverse situations.

The Government Uses sections describes how the government uses AI of different type in different arenas and the pioneering AI research that is taking place.

The Trends - 2019 and Beyond section introduces some of the expected near-future trends AI technology and applications may follow.

The Concerns section addresses important issues raised by the application of AI today and in the future, notes what is happening today to address these issues and how much more remains to be done.

The Decisions Process section describes flow of questions and answers focused on the implementation of an AI solutions that will benefit business requirements.

The Pilot Project section presents a step-by-step outline that will build familiarity with AI, validate the business case for implementation, and verify AI products and tools that might be provide a solution.

The Implementation section describes the introduction of the chosen mature AI technology solution into a production environment as a project using the same time-test procedures as any other IT system.

Conclusion

The human brain has been evolving for over 2.5 million years, Artificial Intelligence over 30 years. In this short time AI is almost omnipresent, permeates our daily lives in numerous recognized and unseen ways, and will increase exponentially along this path in the coming years. Some believe that AI is a Pandora's box that has been opened and cannot be closed. It is true that the growth of AI is inevitable. But it is not necessarily true that AI opens a Pandora's box of gifts that will inevitably punish mankind. AI has many positive features and, unfortunately, some negative ones. These negative features, and how to manage them, have been only recently recognized as a critical issue and are drawing energetic attention world-wide. This issue is discussed in greater detail on the Concerns Page of this topic. The bottom line is that AI is here to stay, learn to live with the good and control the bad. When AI has matured in 30-40 years, AI and humankind must be committed to an equal partnership. What is important going forward is how to take advantage of the positive features and encourage the development of them while, at the same time, learn to mitigate, regulate and control the negative features.