Why do they call it ARTIFICIAL intelligence?

[AviatorTom]

I'm wondering why they call it ARTIFICIAL intelligence...

All AI does is scan the Internet (and its databases) for information about a specific topic, and produce something based on what it finds, according to some rules someone programmed into the AI.

A human being could do the same thing, just not as fast as AI running in a computer.

In fact, we humans still do that, when doing research by surfing the web. In older times (and still in some cases today), people do physical searches in libraries and produce papers to be published, or for school homework.

So what is ARTIFICIAL about AI?

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

Artificial just refers to something made by humans rather than naturally occurring in nature as pointed out.

Specifically on the "intelligence" part, my CompSci professor specializing in machine learning basically just defined Artificial Intelligence as basically solving any problem that existing computer algorithms cannot effectively solve but other living creatures can. As crude as that definition is, I still think it's one of the better ones that fit the ever-changing trends in what we call "AI".

For example, back then in the late 90s and early 2000s when I was a student, facial recognition was considered an extremely difficult problem to solve for machines so any solution was considered in the realm of artificial intelligence. Even recognizing that a photo contains a face was something we lacked effective techniques to solve in any reasonable amount of time and often involved utilizing cumbersome neural networks. Fast forward to today and even our smart phones, on their own, can recognize faces so efficiently to the point of even recognizing facial features in real-time (which people abuse to plaster things like bunny ears and dog noses on their faces in real-time video streams).

Even playing chess at a world-class grandmaster level was considered in the realm of AI with cumbersome hardware and software techniques like Deep Blue required just to give Kasparov a run for his money. Now we have chess engines that run locally on our mobile devices which thoroughly stomp even the world's greatest chess players.

So it's a constantly-evolving idea what constitutes artificial intelligence, but for people who get hung up the term and want to get deeply philosophical about concepts like intelligence and possibly even consciousness, I think it's worth remember the crude definition my CompSci professor gave and realize that's pretty much the gist of what we call "AI" today, and will call tomorrow.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I also often see a tendency for people to conflate AI with neural nets. It's the nature of the problem and the difficulty of solving it computationally that constitutes solutions we deem in the realm of artificial intelligence, not the nature of the solution.

So neural nets are one extremely generalized (albeit cumbersome) way of solving these class of problems, but they're not the only solution that would count as "AI" today. They're arguably the most inelegant solutions given the sheer amount of processing and data required, not to mention extensive training sets and an overall inability for the creators to predict the precise nature of the solution. There could be a far more precise and elegant algorithmic solution available for the problem. We resort to neural nets when we basically have no idea how to solve these problems in a more straightforward and algorithmic way.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

Also what constitutes as "AI" is generally quite contextual. For example, video games use a much looser concept of what is described as AI than most other industries, and a lot of people consider that an overly liberal use of the term. Yet I don't consider it such if a video game has relatively sophisticated enemy behavior compared to other video games, e. g., to call that "AI", and even if it involves no machine learning, as video games have some of the harshest real-time requirements to their solutions.

They have to be able to simulate so much in real-time at 30 or 60+ frames per second, and those constraints limit the solutions available substantially over areas that can afford to use offline processing or cloud computing, e. g. So any additional constraints associated with a problem factor into what ends up being generally being called "AI". If a problem has harsh real-time constraints associated with it, a much broader range of solutions are going to be called "AI" than a problem that allows offline processing or network processing as part of the solution.

[NathanDavis]

I think you answered yourself..

they're doing some of the same functions we do... but artificially, not organically

[NathanDavis]

"intelligence" is just the marketing concept

[RefriedBeans]

Google has people traveling the world looking for AI companies. If your company is promising, they just buy your ass. (Google learned a long time ago that competition is a waste of time)

Google bought a company from the UK called "Deep Minds."

The folks at Google hooked up that contraption to an "old-school" video game. (I think it was PACK-MAN, but I can't remember)

"Programming" is a thing of the past, and "machine learning" is the new thing. So rather than program this new Gizmo to play PACK-MAN, the Google dudes just told the Gizmo to just make the score go up. That's it. No programming or teaching... just make the score go up.

The next day when the Google dudes came back to work, the Gizmo had the highest PAC-MAN score in history.

What does this mean? We're all fucked! lol

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1onxri0duN0

[purplepoppy]

It's because it fools people into thinking it's intelligent. As you say it just cobbles bits together from the internet but it doesn't actually understand it as a real intelligent being would.

[Zubairsk]

The term "artificial intelligence" can indeed be somewhat misleading. While AI systems do exhibit remarkable abilities to process vast amounts of data and generate outputs based on programmed rules, they lack the innate understanding, creativity, and consciousness that humans possess.

In essence, AI operates within the parameters set by human programmers and relies on predefined algorithms to perform tasks. It's essentially a tool designed to augment human capabilities rather than replicate human intelligence.

The "artificial" aspect refers to the fact that these systems are man-made constructs, created to simulate certain aspects of human cognition and decision-making. However, they are still fundamentally different from human intelligence in many respects.

Moreover, the term "intelligence" in AI refers to the ability of machines to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, problem-solving, and pattern recognition. While AI systems excel in these areas, they lack the broader understanding, emotional intelligence, and consciousness that define human intelligence.

So, while AI is undoubtedly a powerful and transformative technology, it's essential to recognize its limitations and distinguish it from genuine human intelligence.

[RebelinSteel]

As others have said Artificial means what it says on the tin, it’s not natural but man made. While large language models are just starting out, the entire area of automation, machine monitoring etc can be managed by an ‘AI’ (it’s not a full AI but termed that). It can monitor machines for failure at speeds humans cannot manage, from previous fault information it can decide when a machine will require specific maintenance. We recently had an exercise with an LLM with its morals and ethics disabled, this meant we could ask it how to attack the US to neutralise its navy, or delay its ability to defend the US and how to take out say Panama Canal, Suez Canal, various ports, what Chinese cruise missiles to use, how many, how to time the attack, and a bunch of other things. That took about 15 minutes.

[hahahmm]

As others say, Artificial indicates it was made by humans. So if I created what looks like a tree by using paint and concrete, no matter how realistic it looks it is artificial. Even if I used wood to do it, but I actually shaped the branches myself.

Also AI does not simply "scan for information". More like imagine if you had all the knowledge of the Internet but you could only focus on a tiny bit of it at a time. It's sort of like that. It is predicting/creating simulations to compute outputs based on familiar inputs.

[NamerOfStars]

Because they're lazy. Back when I was a kid, the promises of virtual reality were well and truly amazing... what we eventually got that bears that name is a visor that lets you strap a monitor and a TrackIR system to your forehead (with, I will concede, less neck injury). It may present an impressive visual display, but you get less immersion that the tactile feedback you'd get from one of THESE puppies:

It's not what was promised, but it's something along that line, so it's given the name.

Same deal with "splitting the atom" (impossible by definition), "multiple universes" (ditto), and yes, "artificial intelligence". A program that runs complex tasks is still just a program.

[_no_one_]

I totally agree but when we look at the fundamentals of cognition, our brains our full of neurons similarly AI's data is structured as a highly dense neural network which is governed by heuristics. Those heuristics are made from pre defined and proven mathematical postulates accounting for use and edge cases which naturally is our general sense but artifically just a bunch of formulae. I guess what's artificial about it is that its a cloned functionality following similar fundamentals but simulated and ran on a virtual space.

[Twalli]

AI isn't a search engine. You described a search engine. I could write an entire book about what AI can do that a human can't. There have actually been several books on the topic, and at the speed AI is advancing, most of the things the mention are widely used.

[AviatorTom]

I know AI is more than a search engine. But AI does often search for available information in order to do what it's asked to do, to satisfy its programming.

[Twalli]

Yes, but it's not the same that a human can do. AI can detect slight changes in a person's voice earlier than a human can and therefore identify strokes before they hit. They can notice changes in heartbeat and blood flow immediately.

[JacobJordan]

Artificial means it is man made. The intelligence is in reference to the fact that it is able to draw on and store information (like a human) so a simpler term would be man made intelligence. It can draw on the information, it can store it and it can share it. In addition the artificial is used to reference the lack of a biological form.

[normalice]

It is artificial in the sense that it looks like real intelligence but is not.

I think the "understanding" people associate with real intelligence, if it is ever a task that could be mimicked by a computer, would be better called "synthetic intelligence."

[msc545]

It is called artificial intelligence because this is not a biological learning system but rather a mechanical one. The exact mechanism of learning is not the point and doesn't matter here. It is entirely appropriate to call it artificial intelligence given these conditions.

[exitseven]

It is living inside a machine or a group ov machines. It is not a person or other living organism.

[OlderAndWiser]

And stevia is sometimes called an artificial sweetener.

[Snakeyes7]

I the artifical refers to it being a computer algorithm and not an actual human brain.

[tfan1]

Human being is natural and alive. Computer/ai is artificial and is not alive

[Juxtapose]

The word "artificial" simply means "man-made."

[Wwwyzzerdd]

Artificial doesn't think like the real thing

[Demonatrix]

They couldn't think of anything better

[Iron_Man]

To me that represents Martians

[jahaims]

You don't understand what actual ai is

[AviatorTom]

@jahaims Not sure why you say that. I've created some AI apps during my career... before it was called AI.

[ab2shifty]

Man I don’t even know anymore 🤣