What is quest?
Artificial Intelligence, often shortened to AI, is a branch of computer science that creates machines or software that can think, learn, and make decisions in a way that mimics human intelligence.
Let's break it down
- Data: AI needs lots of information to learn from.
- Algorithms: These are step‑by‑step instructions that tell the computer how to find patterns in the data.
- Models: After processing data with algorithms, AI builds a model-a kind of “knowledge map” it can use to make predictions or decisions.
- Training: The process of feeding data into the model so it improves over time.
- Inference: When the trained model is used to answer new questions or solve problems.
Why does it matter?
AI can handle huge amounts of information far faster than a person, spotting patterns and making predictions that help us solve complex problems, automate repetitive tasks, and create new products and services.
Where is it used?
- Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa
- Recommendation engines on Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon
- Self‑driving cars and drones
- Medical imaging that helps doctors detect diseases
- Fraud detection in banking and online payments
- Customer support chatbots
Good things about it
- Increases efficiency and saves time
- Can improve accuracy in fields like healthcare and finance
- Enables new experiences (personalized content, smart homes)
- Helps solve large‑scale challenges such as climate modeling or disease research
- Reduces human error in repetitive tasks
Not-so-good things
- Requires large amounts of data, raising privacy concerns
- Can be biased if the training data is biased, leading to unfair outcomes
- Complex models can be hard to understand, making decisions “black boxes”
- May displace certain jobs, causing economic and social disruption
- High computational cost can be expensive and environmentally taxing.