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Artificial Intelligence Resources

Exploration of AI tools and their usefulness

Artificial Intelligence Resources 

The purpose of this guide is to introduce different generative artificial intelligence tools, describe their uses, and take a look at the ethical implications of AI. 

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an ever developing field of science and can be defined in a number of ways. George M. Whitson (2023) describes it as "the design, implementation, and use of programs, machines, and systems that exhibit human intelligence, with its most important activities being knowledge representation, reasoning, and learning."

In other words, AI is the use of machines (particularly computers) to mimic the human brain or human intelligence. This is accomplished by leveraging deep neural networks and using algorithms to generate human-like responses to questions or prompts; this type of AI is commonly referred to as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). 

 

Timeline 

  • "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" was published in 1950 by Alan Turing which is considered to be a seminal work in the field of AI
  • The term "artificial intelligence" is first used in 1956
  • Neural networks are developed in the 1980s
  • IBM Watson defeats human contestants on Jeopardy! in 2011. Apple introduces Siri.
  • Major developments in generative AI in the 2020s (large language models, text-to-image)

Sources