Artificial intelligence – or AI for short – is technology that enables a computer to think or act in a more ‘human’ way. It does this by taking in information from its surroundings, and deciding its response based on what it learns or senses. It affects the way we live, work and have fun in our spare time, and sometimes without us even realizing.

AI is becoming a bigger part of our lives, as the technology behind it becomes more and more advanced. Machines are improving their ability to ‘learn’ from mistakes and change how they approach a task the next time they try it. Some researchers are even trying to teach robots about feelings and emotions.

Let’s take it back to where everything began;

Back in October 1950, British techno-visionary Alan Turing published an article called “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” in the journal MIND that raised what at the time must have seemed to many like a science-fiction fantasy. Turing thought that they could. Moreover, he believed, it was possible to create software for a digital computer that enabled it to observe its environment and to learn new things, from playing chess to understanding and speaking a human language. And he thought machines eventually could develop the ability to do that on their own, without human guidance. “We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields,” he predicted.

Nearly 70 years later, Turing’s seemingly outlandish vision has become a reality. Artificial intelligence, commonly referred to as AI, gives machines the ability to learn from experience and perform cognitive tasks, the sort of stuff that once only the human brain seemed capable of doing.

AI is rapidly spreading throughout civilization, where it has the promise of doing everything from enabling autonomous vehicles to navigate the streets to making more accurate hurricane forecasts. On an everyday level, AI figures out what ads to show you on the web, and powers those friendly chatbots that pop up when you visit an e-commerce website to answer your questions and provide customer service. And AI-powered personal assistants in voice-activated smart home devices perform myriad tasks, from controlling our TVs and doorbells to answering trivia questions and helping us find our favorite songs.

But we’re just getting started with it. As AI technology grows more sophisticated and capable, it’s expected to massively boost the world’s economy, creating about $13 trillion worth of additional activity by 2030, according to a McKinsey Global Institute forecast.

Modern Artificial Intelligence has expanded to a litany of services, every from cybersecurity and real estate, all the way to voice generation. In a future article, we will dive into each particular AI service.

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