Qualcomm Corporation
When you hear Artificial Intelligence (AI): Do you think of the Terminator or Data on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”? While neither example of artificial general intelligence is available today, AI has given rise to a form of machine intelligence. And it’s trained on huge publicly available data, proprietary data and/or sensor data.

As we embark on our AI on the Edge series, we’d like to explain exactly what we mean by “AI” — especially since this broad category can include everything from machine learning to neural networks and deep learning. Don’t be embarrassed: “What is AI, exactly?” requires a more technical and nuanced answer than you might expect.

History of AI: The origins of AI research
Answering “what is AI” is much easier when you know the history of AI.  By the 1950s, the concept of AI had taken its first steps out of science fiction and into the real world as we began to build capable electronic computers. Researcher Alan Turing began to explore the mathematical possibility of building AI. He suggested that machines, like humans, can use information and reasoning to solve problems and make decisions.

These concepts were introduced in his famous 1950 paper titled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” in which he discussed the potential for intelligent machines and proposed a test of their intelligence, now called the Turing Test. The test posits that if a machine can carry on a conversation (over a text interface) that is indistinguishable from a conversation with a human being, then it is reasonable to say that the machine is “thinking.” Using this simplified test, it is easier to argue that a “thinking machine” is at least plausible.