网易100天---26、What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
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Passage 1
人工智能的定义
The Definition of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
From Poole, Mackworth & Goebel · 230 words · 3 mins
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Artificial intelligence (AI),Sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. In computer science AI research is defined as the study of " intelligent agents ": any device that perceives 感知 its environment and takes actions that maximize最大化 its chance of successfully achieving its goals.

AI systems are often hugely complex and powerful, with the ability to process unfathomable 深不可测 depths of information in an extremely quick time in order to come to an effective conclusion.

Colloquially用通俗语, the term “artificial intelligence” is applied when a machine mimics “cognitive” functions“认知”功能 that humans associate with other human minds, such as “learning” and “problem solving”.

AI can be categorized in any number of ways, here is an example.

It classifies AI systems as either weak AI or strong AI. Weak AI, also known as narrow AI, is an AI system that is designed and trained for a particular task. Virtual personal assistants, such as Apple’s Siri, are a form of weak AI.

Strong AI, also known as artificial general intelligence, is an AI system with generalized human cognitive abilities so that when presented with an unfamiliar task, it has enough intelligence to find a solution. The Turing Test, developed by mathematician Alan Turing in 1950, is a method used to determine if a computer can actually think like a human, although the method is controversial.
Passage 2
人工智能的前世今生
The History of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
From McCorduck · 430 words · 5 mins
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The history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) began in antiquity古代, with myths, stories and rumors of artificial beings endowed赋予 with intelligence or consciousness by master craftsmen有许多工匠大师们赋予人造生物智慧或意识的神话，故事和谣言; as Pamela McCorduck writes, AI began with “an ancient wish to forge the gods.” For example, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or Karel Čapek’s R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), characters and their fates raised many of the same issues now discussed in the ethics of artificial intelligence.

The seeds of modern AI were planted by classical philosophers who attempted to describe the process of human thinking as the mechanical manipulation操纵 of symbols. This work culminated达到了高潮 in the invention of the programmable digital computer in the 1940s, a machine based on the abstract essence of mathematical reasoning这台机器是基于数学推理的抽象本质. This device and the ideas behind it inspired a handful of scientists to begin seriously discussing the possibility of building an electronic brain.

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The field of AI research was founded at a workshop车间 held on the campus（大学）校园 of Dartmouth College during the summer of 1956. Those who attended would become the leaders of AI research for decades. Many of them predicted that a machine as intelligent as a human being would exist in no more than a generation and they were given millions of dollars to make this vision come true.

Eventually it became obvious that they had grossly underestimated the difficulty of the project. In 1973, in response to the criticism from James Lighthill and ongoing pressure from congress国会不断施加的压力, the U.S. and British Governments stopped funding undirected research into artificial intelligence, and the difficult years that followed would later be known as an “AI winter”. Seven years later, a visionary initiative 有预见性的倡议 by the Japanese Government inspired governments and industry to provide AI with billions of dollars, but by the late 80s the investors became disillusioned幻想破灭的 by the absence of the needed computer power (hardware) and withdrew funding again.

Investment and interest in AI boomed in the first decades of the 21st century. According to Bloomberg’s Jack Clark, 2015 was a landmark year for artificial intelligence, with the number of software projects that use AI within Google increased from a “sporadic usage” in 2012 to more than 2,700 projects. Clark also presents factual data提供了实际数据 indicating that error rates in image processing tasks have fallen significantly since 2011. Around 2016, China greatly accelerated its government funding; given its large supply of data and its rapidly increasing research output, some observers观察人士 believe it may be on track to becoming an “AI superpower”. In a 2017 survey conducted by MIT, one in five companies reported they had "incorporated合并 AI in some offerings or processes"将人工智能合并到某些产品或流程中.