Machine Learning For Dummies

Chapter 1

Getting the Real Story about AI

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting beyond the hype of artificial intelligence (AI)

Defining the dream of AI

Differentiating between the real world and fantasy

Comparing AI to machine learning

Understanding the engineering portion of AI and machine learning

Delineating where engineering ends and art begins

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a huge topic today, and it’s getting bigger all the time thanks to the success of technologies such as Siri (http://www.apple.com/ios/siri/). Talking to your smartphone is both fun and helpful to find out things like the location of the best sushi restaurant in town or to discover how to get to the concert hall. As you talk to your smartphone, it learns more about the way you talk and makes fewer mistakes in understanding your requests. The capability of your smartphone to learn and interpret your particular way of speaking is an example of an AI, and part of the technology used to make it happen is machine learning. You likely make limited use of machine learning and AI all over the place today without really thinking about it. For example, the capability to speak to devices and have them actually do what you intend is an example of machine learning at work. Likewise, recommender systems, such as those found on Amazon, help you make purchases based on criteria such as previous product purchases or products that complement a current choice. The use of both AI and machine learning will only increase with time.