AI for Good

Chapter 1What Is Artificial Intelligence and How Can It Be Used for Good?

—William B. Weeks

Defining artificial intelligence begs the question of how one defines intelligence. It's a sticky and complex wicket because whole philosophical arguments and schools hang on the definition of intelligence. But, for the purposes of this book, we define intelligence as the ability to learn.

Learning entails acquisition of knowledge and application of that knowledge. Acquisition of knowledge without application is simply data. As humans, we are constantly obtaining data; however, much of the data that we obtain is filtered out. While our brains are purportedly the most complex entities in the universe, were we not able to filter out data, we would become overwhelmed by it. Imagine driving or taking the subway to work, and capturing and cataloguing every sight, smell, innuendo, look, and feeling that you experienced. I would bet that most readers—if thinking back to their last commute to work—would be hard-pressed to remember any details of it. Perhaps if something out of the ordinary happened, that would stand out. Or maybe if you heard your favorite song being sung by a busker in the metro station, that might penetrate your natural filtering system and persist for a while. But we filter out a lot, in large part to maintain the efficiency of our brains.

As humans have evolved, we have increasingly moved from a true/false, good/bad categorization mechanism for data inputs. Such categorizations ...