Beyond AI hype: AI once stood for algorithmic intelligence | AI & Machine Learning - Information Age

To look beyond the AI hype, it is worth remembering that AI once stood for algorithmic intelligence, John Gentry, Chief Technology Officer - Virtual Instruments tells Information Age. 

AI could just as easily mean algorithmic intelligence
Photo: AdobeStock

AI this, AI that, ayeeee, I am not sure the term is always used correctly. You could say there is too much AI hype, you might as well say the tide always comes in. It is not a contentious thing to say, it just is. Maybe it would help if we re-defined it. Instead is saying AI means artificial intelligence, maybe we should return to an earlier definition, one untainted by Hollywood. Let’s call it algorithmic intelligence, instead.

“Artificial intelligence is the application of algorithmic computation to large data sets,” says John Gentry, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Development for Virtual Instruments, a solutions provider delivering AIOps driven performance management for modern hybrid infrastructure.

But it’s not just about fancy maths, he said. “It’s not just about saying ‘I’m using some fancy maths against a big data set and therefore I have artificial intelligence.’ It really needs to be much a more purposeful and practical application of a specific mathematics approach, depending upon the known interest and desired outcomes for a given factor.” That’s where the word intelligence comes in. Algorithms are as old as maths. Algorithmic intelligence is where you can take this to the next step — providing desired outcomes...

Gentry argues that economists, supply chain management and logistics professionals and the military have been using what was then called algorithmic intelligence for many years. Advances in computer power gave the technology a broader appeal, substitute the word artificial for algorithmic and you have got AI today.
Read more...

Source: Information Age