What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a dynamic field in computer science with two primary objectives:

Understand Intelligence

The first goal is to comprehend the very nature of intelligence itself.

Build Intelligent Systems

The second goal is to construct machines and systems that exhibit intelligent behavior.

The Ingredients of Intelligence

While there's no single definition, we can identify several key characteristics that constitute an intelligent entity:

1. Communication The ability to exchange and understand information.

2. Knowledge & Memory Possessing internal knowledge and the capacity to remember and recall information.

3. World Model Having an internal representation or model of the external world.

4. Intentionality The capacity to have goals and formulate plans to achieve them.

5. Creativity The ability to generate new and original ideas or solutions. ::::

Defining AI Through the Years

The definition of AI has been articulated in various ways by pioneers in the field, reflecting its evolving focus.

Bellman's Definition

"[The automation of] activities that we associate with human thinking, activities such as decision-making, problem solving, learning ..."

1978

Rich and Knight's Definition

"The study of how to make computers do things at which, at the moment, people are better."

1991

Winston's Definition

"The study of computations that make it possible to perceive, reason, and act."

1992

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Core Approaches to AI

The pursuit of AI can be understood through different philosophical and practical lenses. We can categorize these approaches into two main dichotomies.

Human vs. Rational

The first distinction is based on whether the goal is to replicate human-like processes or to achieve an ideal form of rationality.

• Thinking Humanly: Focuses on emulating the human thought process.
• Acting Humanly: Aims to create systems that behave in ways indistinguishable from humans.
• Thinking Rationally: Involves modeling thought as a formal, logical process.
• Acting Rationally: The primary focus of this course, this approach aims to build agents that consistently take the optimal action to achieve their goals.

Strong vs. Weak AI

This division is based on the ultimate ambition of the AI system.

Strong AI

• Goal: To build a machine that is genuinely conscious and capable of thought.
• Perspective: A top-down, philosophical approach that asks: Does the program actually think?
• Strategy: Seeks to develop a universal strategy for intelligence.

Weak AI

• Goal: To build a machine that acts as if it were intelligent, without making claims about consciousness. It's like a submarine "swimming".
• Perspective: A bottom-up, pragmatic approach focused on performance: Does the program work?
• Strategy: Creates domain-specific solutions for narrow tasks, such as a chess program or a language translator.

Understanding Rational Action

Rational behavior is about always doing the best thing.

The "best thing" is the action that maximizes the expected performance towards a goal, given all available information. However, this is often constrained.

• Bounded Rationality This concept acknowledges that real-world agents have limited resources (like CPU time and memory). Therefore, the goal becomes doing the best possible action under these constraints.

This course defines AI as the study and construction of rational agents: systems designed to do the right thing.

Milestones in AI

The field of AI has achieved remarkable successes that have captured public imagination and earned prestigious scientific accolades.

AlphaGo's Victory

In 2016, Google DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated world champion Lee Sedol in the game of Go, a significant milestone in AI.

2016

Autonomous Driving

Companies like Cruise continue to make significant progress in developing and testing self-driving cars.

Ongoing

Generative AI

Models like OpenAI's Sora, capable of generating video from text prompts, demonstrate massive leaps in creative AI capabilities.

2024

Nobel Recognition

The Nobel Prizes in both Physics and Chemistry were awarded for foundational research in AI.

2024

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