We are now in the 21st century and the internet and technologies have taken a major hit until now. The advancement in technology has given birth to many new aspects resulting in a more advanced and successful achievement across various sectors. Technology plays a major role in our lives. In fact we are surrounded by it on a day-to-day basis. For example, mobile phones, laptops, smartwatches, etc, are the things used by us that work on technology. One such technology that is a boon to mankind is Artificial intelligence(AI). 

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? 

AI is a concept where machines are programmed in such a way that they should imitate human intelligence. They should be able to think and act like humans. This technology is beneficial as it reduces the burden of humans. 

The machines work on algorithms (a set of instructions) and are instructed to achieve a specific task. AI is evolving at a faster rate and has already been implemented in most organizations.

So when did AI first come into existence? 

AI goes a long way back in 1900. It was soon after a mathematician Alan Turing came up with a question “can machines think?” The reason behind coming up with such a question was when the Allied Forces had won world war II. The Nazi encryption Machine Enigma was broke by the enemies which led to the victory of the Allied Forces. Alan Turing published a paper on “Computer Machinery and Intelligence” in 1950 where the fundamental goal of AI was established. 

Soon after that in 1960, the US Department of Defense started on further research where they tried to observe if systems can imitate human reasoning by providing training to the systems. Later there were many such research carried out by different organizations. AI made many advancements till then and is evolving now as well. 

Categories of AI

We studied what is artificial intelligence above and now we are going to look at the various categories of Artificial Intelligence.

It is classified into two main categories i.e. Type-1 AI

and Type-2 AI. Each category is further divided into various types. 

TYPE-1 AI consists of the following where each type is built on capabilities:

1. Narrow AI
2. General AI
3. Super AI

Whereas, TYPE-2 AI consists of the following where each type is built on functionality:

1. Reactive Machines
2. Theory of Mind
3. Self-Awareness
4. Limited Memory

Let’s understand each of these types quickly

Narrow AI

It is the most basic type of AI which is utilized to carry out specific tasks. This type of AI is also known as weak AI as it performs specific activities and cannot operate above its limit. 

Examples of Narrow AI are Siri, Alexa, self-driving cars, etc

General AI

This type of AI is expected to imitate human intelligence like think, solve, or make decisions. This is also known as strong AI as they can adapt exactly like a human. However, there is no system as such which works on general AI as researches are still working on the progress of general AI. 

Super AI

This type of AI is hypothetical as it is believed to perform some advanced activities rather than just imitating human intelligence. It is considered that Super AI will perform tasks better than humans. Their capabilities in terms of making decisions and solving problems will be greater. However, this type of AI is not yet into existence but researchers will soon start working on it. 

Reactive Machines

Reactive machines are the traditional type of machines that are used to operate on present events only. They do not store any past information and they have no learning capability as well. An example of this could be IBM’s Deep Blue system which was developed for playing chess. The system won chess matches against the world’s famous chess players in a stipulated time.  

Theory of Mind

This type of AI is expected to understand human emotions. It should be able to connect with humans on an emotional level and interact with them accordingly. Although, the theory of mind AI is still in progress and there is no such system developed as of now. 

Self Awareness

As the name suggests, this type of AI will possess self-awareness. It will be able to not only adapt human intelligence but also do more than that like, able to detect emotions and respond to it, solve problems on their own, have opinions of their own, etc. This is the more advanced & hypothetical type of AI and we can expect it to be released in the future. 

Limited Memory 

This type of AI is similar to Reactive Machines but along with that feature they can store past data as well. However, the data can be stored for a particular amount of time only. An example of this could be self-driving cars that store the current speed of other cars, distance and other factors required to drive on the road. 

What is The Future of AI?

Artificial Intelligence's future is very bright keeping in mind the current developments in technology. Though today we are using narrow AI technology, the other two AI’s i.e. super and general AI could take a long while to be available. Many researchers have stated that while it is possible to develop such AI’s, the time for the same cannot be specified. 

AI will play a significant role in the future but what most humans are worried about is whether it will replace humans or not? There is no specific answer to this question as various people have predicted various outcomes for the same. For example, Elon Musk has stated that he is worried about whether the super AI will take over in the future. Whereas on the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg is looking towards the positive aspect of the scenario rather than focusing on the negative aspect. 

However, we can expect certain changes across various sectors like virtual tutors in education sectors, automatic cars, early detection and diagnosing of diseases, etc. Noticing these developments, we should try to look at the more positive side and see how technology can help humans in benefiting them. To conclude, the Artificial intelligence future is surely a boon for many.