What is artificial intelligence? | Future Technology - BBC Focus Magazine

Peter Bentley, computer scientist and author who is based at University College London explains, Everything you need to know about the history of AI, what we mean by 'deep learning', and if we can really trust artificial intelligence.

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Why is artificial intelligence so popular today? 

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been around since the birth of computers in the 1950s. The original pioneers dreamed of making ‘computer brains’ that could perform the same kinds of tasks as our own brains, such as playing chess or translating languages. But hopes that AI would quickly reach human-level intelligence didn’t come to fruition, and AI soon fell out of favour.

Over the following decades, technology improved at an exponential rate. Computers got faster, the internet was invented, and researchers made new advances in AI algorithms...

Can we trust AI? 
There are always downsides to technologies. If an AI is trusted too much, then we may get ourselves into trouble – this is why driverless cars will always need a human override option.

If we train AI with biased data then the AI will also be biased, as studies have shown where AIs recognise white male faces better than others. Some worry that AI will lead to job losses, which may be true, but AI will also create many jobs.
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Source: BBC Focus Magazine