Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing, but it's not as smart as many of our everyday technologies. AI comes in different types: some do specific tasks, while others are smarter and can learn from experience. Most current AIs have specific jobs, but there might be one day when we have AI as versatile as humans.
In this article, we will discuss and display the different types of subsets of Artificial Intelligence.
What is AI Vs. Machine Learning?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term for computer software that performs complex tasks and learn from them. Machine learning (ML) is a subfield of AI which uses algorithms to produce adaptive models that can perform a variety of complex tasks.
What Are the Main Subsets of Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence has become such a broad field that it contains many subsets and specializations. Here are the main branches of AI:
Machine Learning: Machine Learning is the field of AI focused on teaching computers to learn independently by using data to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning powers product recommendations, facial recognition, and self-driving cars.
Deep Learning: Deep learning utilizes neural networks for machine learning, achieving success in computer vision, natural language processing, and translation.
Computer Vision: Computer vision deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. Computer vision powers facial recognition, self-driving cars, and technologies that can detect objects or scenes in pictures.
Natural Language Processing: Natural language processing focuses on teaching computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language. NLP enables machine translation, sentiment analysis, automatic summarization, and chatbots.
Machine Learning
Machine learning is an AI branch that enables systems to learn and improve from experience without explicit programming. It builds a mathematical model using training data, making predictions or decisions without explicit programming.
Supervised Learning
Supervised learning algorithms learn from labeled examples in the training data. They need input variables (x) and an output variable (Y) to learn the mapping function from the input to the output. Some examples of supervised learning are:
Regression: Used to predict continuous values. For example, predicting house prices.
Classification: Used to predict discrete values. For example, predicting if an email is spam or not.
Unsupervised Learning
Unsupervised learning algorithms find hidden patterns or intrinsic structures in the data. They have only input data (x) and no corresponding output variables. Some examples of unsupervised learning are:
Clustering: Finding groups of similar examples in the data. For example, clustering customers based on their interests.
Dimensionality Reduction: It's like simplifying things. Instead of using lots of numbers to describe something, we use fewer numbers but still keep most of the important stuff. For instance, with pictures, we make them simpler, but we don't lose the important details.
Computer Vision
Computer vision is the field of AI that focuses on teaching computers to identify and process images like humans do. Computer vision systems are trained on massive datasets of images to detect and classify objects, scenes, and actions.
Applications of Computer Vision
Computer vision is used in everyday things like self-driving cars, recognizing faces, and sorting images. It's also behind cool stuff like virtual objects in games that can "see" and interact with the real world, like spotting traffic lights, signs, and people.
Some of the specific tasks computer vision systems can perform include:
Image classification: Determining what objects, scenes, or actions are in an image. For example, labeling an image as containing a dog, cat, person, outdoor scene, etc
Object detection: Object detection is like teaching computers to find and highlight things in pictures, like spotting cars in street photos and drawing boxes around them
Image segmentation: Image segmentation means breaking a picture into parts that show different things. Like, dividing a photo into sections for the sky, buildings, and roads
Facial recognition: Detecting, identifying, and verifying faces in images
Optical character recognition: Converting images of text into machine-encoded text, for example, digitizing a scanned document into a text file
Natural Language Processing
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is an artificial intelligence branch that uses natural language to communicate with computers and humans, combining computational linguistics and AI to enable interactions between people and machines.
The Goal of NLP
NLP aims to allow computers to extract meaning from human language and respond appropriately. Some of the critical objectives of NLP include:
Machine translation: Translating text from one language to another. For example, translating English to Spanish or vice versa
Sentiment analysis: Determining the sentiment or emotion behind a text and, for example, analyzing social media posts to determine if people have a positive, negative, or neutral sentiment about a product or topic
Chatbots and virtual assistants: Powering software like Alexa, Siri, and customer support chatbots that can have basic conversations with humans via text or voice
Text summarization: Producing a summary of a longer text and, for example, summarising a news article or research paper
Speech recognition: Transcribing and understanding speech. For example, converting speech to text for voice assistants and transcription software
NLP powers many technologies we use every day. As computers get better at understanding natural language, NLP will enable even more advanced applications like sophisticated chatbots, automated phone systems, and more human-like virtual assistants. While human language will always be complex, NLP is making significant progress in closing the gap between human and machine communication.
Robotics
Robotics is the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Robots can perform physical tasks, either automatically or by remote control. Robotics combines artificial intelligence and physical computing to create intelligent machines that can perform human-like tasks.
Robot Manipulators
Robot manipulators, also known as robot arms, are controlled devices that precisely grasp and move objects. These devices consist of multiple segments connected by joints and are powered by actuators. As technology advances, robot arms become more dexterous and intelligent, with researchers developing soft robotics and robotic hands capable of grasping and manipulating delicate objects with human-level dexterity.
Mobile Robots
Mobile robots, or rovers, are motorized machines that can explore their environment without guidance. They are used in various applications, such as warehouse logistics, space exploration, transportation, and surveillance. Advancements in AI, sensors, and battery technology have made mobile robots increasingly autonomous, with self-driving cars and NASA's Perseverance rover successfully landing on Mars in 2021. Robots combine AI software intelligence with physical capabilities, gaining enhanced senses, agility, mobility, and reasoning abilities. This enables them to tackle complex, unstructured tasks in the real world, working alongside humans as collaborative partners.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the types of Machine Learning?
There are three main types of Machine Learning: supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning. Supervised learning is where the model learns from labeled data. Unsupervised learning is used when the data is unlabeled, and the model identifies patterns and structures in the data independently. Reinforcement learning trains a model to make a sequence of decisions.
What is Deep Learning?
Deep Learning is a subset of Machine Learning that uses artificial neural networks with several hidden layers to process data and create patterns used for decision-making. It's similar to the neural network of a human brain, hence the term 'deep'.
What is Natural Language Processing (NLP)?
Natural Language Processing involves the interaction between computers and human language. It covers several tasks such as machine translation, sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, part-of-speech tagging, and many others.
What is Computer Vision?
Computer Vision includes methods for acquiring, processing, analyzing, and understanding digital images and replicating the capabilities of human vision more accurately and efficiently.
Conclusion
AI's diverse subsets, from Machine Learning's predictions to Computer Vision's perception, revolutionize technology and daily life. They're reshaping industries, paving the way for a future where humans and machines collaborate, ushering in limitless possibilities through evolving AI.
We hope this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge of subsets of AI. If you want to learn more, then check out our articles.