What are the goals of Artificial Intelligence? Definition, Types, Challenges, and Trends

25-Apr-2023

Artificial Intelligence, since its inception in 1956, has been evolving with fascinating stories of success and failures. AI today has reached an unprecedented level of advancement with humans fearing risks associated with it. The invention of Artificial intelligence came about to develop machines that can perform tasks without requiring human intelligence for accomplishment. As such, the goal of artificial intelligence is to create machines with the potential of reasoning, learning, and adapting to diverse situations, just as humans would, this whole idea is focused on the sole aim of automating tasks. 

Goals of Artificial Intelligence, since its inception research has been driven by the develop machines performing tasks that were once limited to human capacities such as decision-making, natural language processing, and complex problem-solving. Fast forward, the world of AI today is characterized by an array of applications, starting from self-driving vehicles to virtual assistance ushering in revolutionary advances in several industries like the medical and healthcare industry, finance, and manufacturing. 

Artificial Intelligence today reflects signs of not only automating performances but is capable of transforming the way we live and work. Let us delve into the world of AI in this post, learning in-depth about the types of artificial intelligence, its goals, and the challenges of artificial intelligence, and learn how AI has evolved over time.

Defining Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is the simulation and mimicking of human intelligence by machines to understand, learn, plan, and perform like humans. AI performs its task by going through certain processes starting from ingesting inputs which are large sets of labeled training data, then analyzing the input data to identify patterns and correlations, and lastly, giving predictions based on the input provided about the future.

Types of Artificial Intelligence

Broadly speaking, there are two types of artificial intelligence- One based on Potential and another based on functionality. Let us delve into these varied types of Artificial Intelligence. 

A. Types of Artificial Intelligence Based on Potential

1. Narrow AI

This is a type of artificial intelligence that is task-oriented and is trained to do a specified task. Narrow AI is also known as weak AI. Their operating parameters are within a restricted and predefined set of framework limitations, and settings. Some popular narrow AI we see in our daily life is Apple's Siri, Self-driving car, speech or image recognition, or the Watson Supercomputer.

2. General AI

This type of artificial Intelligence deals with the execution of any intellectual task as efficiently as a human. The goal of artificial intelligence in this category is to create a system with the potential to think on itself just as humans do. The domain of general AI is still being researched, and continuous efforts are being made to develop computers with greater cognitive capacities.

3. Super AI

This type of artificial Intelligence is touted to outperform human intellect and is equipped to complete any work better than a human. A computer powered by super AI  has the potential to think, reason, solve puzzles, make decisions, learn, and communicate on its own. While the concept of Super AI is a still in a hypothetical stage, it is poised to revolutionize the future of AI.  

B. Types of Artificial Intelligence Based on Functionality

1. Reactive Machines

These are the basic kinds of AI that do not record or remember past experiences or tasks. It only deals with and focuses on current events and responds with the best feasible action. Some of the finest examples of  Reactive Machines are - Google AlphaGo and the Deep Blue system of IBM

2. Limited Memory Machine

This type of AI is those that capacitates machines to store and employ previous experience or data for a limited period of time. A self-driving car is a fine example of a Limited memory machine. It can retain its record of speed in its vicinity, distances, speed limits, and several other important information to navigate through traffic. 

3. Theory of Mind

Artificial intelligence of this type although still in the making process, is poised to revolutionize the whole of the machine world. The idea behind this type of AI  is to design machines with the potential of understanding human emotions and beliefs and engage socially like humans. 

4. AI with self-awareness

Although a long way and is yet to be developed, this type of AI will come equipped with self-awareness. These are machines like superintelligent computers that will be smarter than the human intellect and outperform humans at certain tasks.

Goals of Artificial Intelligence

AI is essentially attained by the reverse engineering of human potentials, and features and applying it to machines. The primary goal of artificial intelligence is to develop a technology that will capacitate computer systems to perform independently of human intervention and intelligently. Let us discover the diverse goals of artificial intelligence in more detail below.

1. Improving Problem-solving skills

one of the top goals of artificial intelligence is to create efficient problem-solving systems with the potential to arrive at logical deductions and replicate human reasoning while tackling complicated puzzles. The potential of AI in solving problems will make our lives easier as complex duties can be designated to dependable AI systems which can simplify vital jobs. 

2. Include knowledge representation

Knowledge engineering and Knowledge representation are the core concepts surrounding AI research. It is concerned with the representation of 'what is known' to machines by using the existence of a set of objects, relations, and concepts. The representation displays real-world data that a computer can utilize to solve complicated real-world problems, such as detecting a medical condition or conversing with humans in natural language. The represented data are helpful for researchers as they can be used to broaden the AI knowledge base and fine-tune and optimize their AI models to achieve their objectives.

3. Facilitates Planning

Intelligent agents enable us to imagine the future. Through predictive analytics, data analysis, forecasting, and optimization models, AI-driven planning creates a procedural course of action for a system to reach its goals and optimizes overall performance. One of the principal goals of artificial intelligence is to employ its prediction to anticipate the future and determine the implications of our actions. Planning significantly improves robotics, cognitive assistance, autonomous systems, and cybersecurity.  

4. Enables Continuous Learning

AI solutions thrive on their learning aspect. Learning in AI denotes the ability of computer algorithms to optimize AI programs' knowledge via observations and past experiences. Two typical models of learning are used by AI - Supervised Learning and Unsupervised Learning. 

5. Promote social Intelligence

Another of the significant goals of artificial intelligence is to gear its research towards increasing computer social intelligence. Affective computing also called Emotion AI, is a sub-field in AI that recognizes, comprehends, and replicates human feelings, emotions, and experiences altogether. 

By applying this sub-set of AI, Computers are able to perform tasks like reading facial emotions, body language, and speech tones. 

6. Obtain General Intelligence

One significant goal of AI researchers is to develop computers with generic AI capabilities that integrate all human cognitive abilities and carry out tasks more efficiently than humans. 

The intended result of this initiative is to generate increased total productivity, and free humans from tasks involving risks like defusing bombs, etc. 

7. Encourage human-AI collaboration

One of the most critical goals of AI is to coordinate AI and humans to enhance each of their potentials with their synergy, rather than relying on a single entity or system.

Major Challenges of Artificial Intelligence

Human inventions since time immemorial have not been devoid of limitations. AI has also come a long way, fulfilling immense promises. However, it is not without defects and limitations. Let us identify some of the major challenges of artificial intelligence: 

1. Bias in AI algorithms

AI systems function on the data it has been trained on, which implies the quality of the AI-generated tasks and the result will only be as good as the data used for input. This results in an unavoidable bias of AI induced by the data supply. As organizations become largely reliant on AI systems, biased AI algorithms and resulting biased perspectives for critical judgment could be unethical, disastrous, and unjust. Hence, it is critical to train AI systems on unbiased data sets. 

2. Lacks knowledge of Intricacies of AI Algorithm

AI algorithms can be comparable to black boxes. Very less is known about the internal working of an AI algorithm. We only know of the prediction the system produces but is not aware of how the system arrives at this prediction. This gives the issue of being trustworthy of the AI-generated tasks or products. 

3. Requires High Computing Power

AI systems require massive computing power to train on their model. With the growing popularity of deep learning algorithms, It has become imperative to plan for an additional number of Cores and GPUs to ensure the effective running of the algorithm.  Additionally, complicated algorithms require supercomputers to operate at full capacity to handle complex processing levels, Only a few supercomputers are available globally which consequently limits the implementation of AI at higher levels. 

4. Complicated integration Process

For organizations to have a smooth transition to AI systems is very complicated. Incorporating AI into the existing organizational infrastructure is beyond the task of adding plugins to the website or making additional changes to Excel sheets. Integration must follow only after checking compatibility and ensuring that no negative effect will result in the current output. It is also necessary to implement an AI interface to integrate infrastructure management.

5. Lacks comprehension of implementation tactics

AI may be on the cusp of revolutionizing every industry, yet it is faced with a significant drawback. One of the biggest challenges of Artificial intelligence is the lack of clarity in its grasp on its deployment tactics. Businesses are required to identify spaces that AI can assist, set definite realistic roles, and build feedback loops into AI systems to allow continuous processes of improvement.  Additionally, Corporate executives should be adept and well-versed with current AI techs, trends, available options, and possible drawbacks. This will assist organizations in focusing on specific areas where AI implementation can benefit them.

6. Ethical Concerns

Another one of the significant challenges of Artificial intelligence is its legal implications. Organizations are required to be cautious of these legal concerns. As AI systems gather sensitive information through the data they are fed, regardless of whether they are harmless or not, maybe breaking state or federal law. Although the data collected by AI may be legal, organizations should consider the potential consequences of such data aggregation.

Top Trends of Artificial Intelligence in 2023

Artificial Intelligence is emerging as a potent transforming agent for diverse industries. As the AI environment advances and evolves, organizations are presented with higher rates of growth and bigger prospects. Below are the top trends that are poised to make waves in the AI landscape with expected growth in the year 2023 ad beyond: 

1. Improved Language Modeling

Improved language modeling is another AI innovation that has taken the world by storm. One such application is the Open AI Chat GPT. Language modeling is a method that enables computers to comprehend language semantics, finish sentences through word prediction, and turn text into computer codes.

2. Solutions for Metaverse

AI agents and Virtual Assistance are going to play a critical role and take center stage as the IT world delves into the concept of the Metaverse. Metaverse implies a virtual world in which users are enabled to interact with digital tools and have an immersive experience. 

3. Smarter Chatbots and Virtual assistants

Smarter chatbots and virtual assistants are another popular AI trend that is surfacing in the year 2023. This trend is projected to grow even higher in the coming years with more advanced technologies and research in AI. The regular chores of chatbots and Virtual assistants have been largely automated by the integration of Deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) technologies.

4. Enhanced  Autonomous vehicle industry

The talk of automobile Companies and business moguls like   Tesla, Ford, Aurora, and Cruise testing self-driving cars with computer vision has been around, and it's already being materialized. This tendency is only projected to accelerate over the coming years. 

5. Amplifying growth of computer vision:

With the quest to elevate AI adoption and supremacy organizations are bound to embrace computer vision technology at an unprecedented level. Computer vision implies  Artificial intelligence using ML algorithms to replicate human-like vision. The ML algorithms are trained to identify patterns in images and to classify things based on their recognition. Such technologies have largely come to be adopted in Healthcare industries, agriculture, farming, self-driving vehicles, etc. 

We have thoroughly discussed in detail the types of artificial intelligence, its goals, the challenges it is facing, and the current trends. AI will continue to grow with more advancements gaining ground in the technological spectrum.

goals of artificial intelligence challenges of artificial intelligence types of artificial intelligence goals of AI