PaTTAN - Five Big Ideas in Artificial Intelligence

Perception

Computers perceive the world using sensors. Perception is the process of extracting meaning from sensory signals. Making computers “see” and “hear” well enough for practical use is one of the most significant achievements of AI to date.

Representation & Reasoning

Agents maintain representations of the world and use them for reasoning. Representation is one of the fundamental problems of intelligence, both natural and artificial. Computers construct representations using data structures, and these representations support reasoning algorithms that derive new information from what is already known. While AI agents can reason about very complex problems, they do not think the way a human does.

Learning

Computers can learn from data. Machine learning is a kind of statistical inference that finds patterns in data. Many areas of AI have progressed significantly in recent years thanks to learning algorithms that create new representations. For the approach to succeed, tremendous amounts of data are required. This “training data” must usually be supplied by people, but is sometimes acquired by the machine itself.

Natural Interactions

Intelligent agents require many kinds of knowledge to interact naturally with humans. Agents must be able to converse in human languages, recognize facial expressions and emotions, and draw upon knowledge of culture and social conventions to infer intentions from observed behavior. All of these are difficult problems. Today’s AI systems can use language to a limited extent, but lack the general reasoning and conversational capabilities of even a child.

Societal Impact

Intelligent agents require many kinds of knowledge to interact naturally with humans. Agents must be able to converse in human languages, recognize facial expressions and emotions, and draw upon knowledge of culture and social conventions to infer intentions from observed behavior. All of these are difficult problems. Today’s AI systems can use language to a limited extent, but lack the general reasoning and conversational capabilities of even a child.