Core concepts of AI

In the previous section, we saw one of the AI definitions that relates AI to automation. However, the most commonly used definition for AI is that of Arthur Samuel:

Artificial intelligence – Arthur Samuel, 1959

AI gives “computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed.”

This definition, while being more general about the “what,” is more specific and restrictive about the “how” than the one mentioned in the previous section. It sets the goal of AI to learn on its own rather than appear smart as we could make it seem in the previous chapter by programming rules. This apparently subtle difference is the common base for debate in the scientific community and it is likely to get more and more restrictive as the techniques and machines advance toward the goal of intelligence per se.

There are different areas in AI. To continue with the topic of machine learning, let us define it:

Machine...