Introduction

The world is seen as a global village and it is important that it remains connected for it to
continue to grow and develop at a steady pace. To ensure its continued growth, there has been
the need for continued development in the computing world. This has led to the emergence of
several new branches to spring out of the computing world, among which include virtual reality,
augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and computer vision. However, in this paper we will be
taking a look at just one branch that has emerged as an important part of the day-to-day life of
humans. This branch is what is known as artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence, AI for
short, has always been around since the 40s, but had always flown under the radar drifting in,
and out of attention until recently when we now understand its usefulness. To the average human
when AI is heard, our mind immediately thinks about the several science fiction movies where
the plot has been woven around an evil AI robot/machine with superior intelligence that is out to
destroy the entire planet. Examples of such movies include the Matrix franchise and the
Terminator franchise, just to name a few. However, contrary to what is learned from such
movies, AI hasn't reached such an advancement and there is still a long way to go before it does.
In this paper I have taken the liberty to dive into the world of AI, its impact in the world around
us, and other necessary information to show why it has suddenly emerged as one of the hottest
topics in the TECH world.

Main body of the report

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

There are so many views of what AI means for this paper, we would refer to a few definitions.
The first definition I would use was made by John McCarthy (1955). According to him, AI is 'the
science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer
programs'. Another definition of AI sees AI as a branch of computer science that studies how
machines and computers can imitate the intelligence of humans to make informed judgments and
decision by responding to data patterns. Wikipedia defines AI as the 'intelligence demonstrated
by machines'. It could also be regarded as a simulation of human intelligence in a computer
system which is created through a set of algorithms that can produce results without having to be
explicitly instructed to do so. To make sure that machines can carry out intelligent actions, such
machines are given a set of programs that help the machine/computer mimic the actions of
human.

These set of programs that are given to the computer are measured in the following ways to
make sure that they can mimic humans. These measurements include;

 The Turing test: Developed by Allan Turing in 1950, this program measures, and test
the ability of an AI system to hold a conversation with a human agent.
 The law of thought approach: this approach measures how the logical statement that
governs the operation of the human mind has been replicated in the AI's algorithm.
 Cognitive modeling approach: According to the definition given on the Cambridge
cognition website, cognition is called 'the mental action of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought and experience. This approach is used in measuring how
 the AI's algorithm can mimic the cognition of a human being. Below is an example that
was lifted from my great learning website of a source code on cognitive modeling

 The rational agent approach: this measures how the AI's algorithm can adapt to various
circumstances in making decisions in the moment, like how a human would.

History and evolution of Artificial intelligence

AI did not just emerge from the blues; it has been bouncing around from as far back as the 40s.
With the continuous research and hypothesis drawn by various researchers, we have been able to
have this emerging topic in the computing world. The history of AI can be traced back to ancient
times where there were depictions of nonhuman objects that were endowed with intelligence by
the Greek god Hephaestus. Over time, the idea of AI was romanced by various scholars, and it
wasn't until the 1940s, when the likes of Warren McCulloh and Walter Pits (1943) gave the
world of AI a living breath. In their published paper titled 'a logical calculus of ideas immanent
in nervous activity' they gave an insight to their suggestion of an artificial neuron model. (A
neuron is a unit of a neural network, which is a series of algorithms that helps capture the
relationship between variables and processes these variables to produce an output. It is a mimic
of human neural cells).

The 1950s saw interest in AI growing and the likes of Donald Hebb (1949) and Allan Turing
(1950) gave their inputs on AI, aiding its growth in popularity. Hebb proposed the connection
modification of strength between neurons in his book 'the organization of behavior: a
neuropsychological theory' while Turing in his publication titled 'computer machinery and
intelligence' gave birth to the Turing test. This Turing test looked into the ability of a machine to
exhibit intelligent behavior that is similar to that of a human and is still being used to this day.
The first neural network computer called SNARC was also created in that same 1950 by Minsky
Marvin and Dean Edmonds. However, with all the growth during this period, it wasn't until 1956
that the word Artificial Intelligence was stamped on those researches. The word was developed
and adopted by John McCarthy in 1956 at Dartmouth College, where he held the first academic
conference on AI. Also in 1956, the first artificial intelligence program called logic theorist was
created by Allen Newell and Herbert Simon. Between 1959 and 1972, there were further
improvements to AI, as it was during that period that the first Chabot called Eliza, the word
machine learning, and the first humanoid robot called WABOT-1 were developed. After this
period there was a decline in interest in AI between 1974 and 1980. This was because of the
shortage of funds from both government and private investors. This period was known as the
first AI winter.

The 80s saw the end of the first AI winter as the first successful commercial expert system called
R1 was created. This period also saw the birth of the first ever American Association of
Artificial Intelligence conference held at Stanford University. Between 1987 and 1993 there was
another decline in interest in AI which led to the second AI winter period which was caused by
the emergence of other computer technologies and cheaper alternatives. By 1997, the first
computer could defeat the then world chess champion at chess and thus gave AI the much
needed catalyst to emerge as an important topic in the computing world. Starting in 2002, the
development of AI went full throttle with AI being infused with so many other machines like
vacuums. The investment in AI was multiplied and so many new companies began exploring the
AI waters. This period also saw the rise in the military investing in autonomous robots. Then
companies like Facebook, Google, and Netflix started using AI to improve their business
activities. Various improvements and breakthroughs have been achieved in the AI world, making
the capability of AI to grow stronger and stronger till this moment.

AI in our everyday life its Impact, pros and cons

AI has been introduced into the everyday lives of humans around the world, either directly or
indirectly. The introduction of AI into almost all areas and aspects of the world has made sure
that human activities are carried out in easier and faster ways and methods. With this said, it is
safe to say that AI has largely impacted the world. However, this impact can be traced to both the
good and the bad areas.

AI in our everyday life

Artificial intelligence has been applied to the day-to day activities of humans and a lot of people
are not really in the know of this. Several companies across almost all industries in the world
have already hopped on the moving train of including AI in their regular operations, of giving
out the best possible product and services to their customers to ensure they are satisfied. Below
are examples of how some industries having being able to include AI in their operations
  E-commerce: using Chatbots, supply chains, and filtering fake and spam reviews are
ways AI has been used in this industry.
 Online shopping: digital personal assistant, cyber security, machine translation among
others.
 Healthcare: robot-assisted surgery, telemedicine, administration of drugs, etc.
 Robotics: the advancement of this industry was improved upon with the introduction of
AI. AI is useful in assembling, customer service, and open source robotics, among others.

Positive impact of AI

Like I stated above, AI has been introduced into our everyday life which has helped reduce so
many hardships that we would have been facing. With AI being adopted by many industries likes
of cyber security, E-commerce, healthcare, human resources, robotics, and customer service, we
have seen a massive growth in every industry in the world. This is because of the usefulness of
Artificial Intelligence

1. Automation: AI helps to reduce the intervention of human in any process given to it and
by so doing helps to reduce the stress and fatigue that might occur when carrying out
such activities. This also helps to minimize the time spent on carrying out such activity
since computers and machines powered by AI carry out activities way faster than a
typical human.
2. Accuracy: AI helps in carrying out faster and easier analysis of data. This is through the
set of algorithms that have been written for it to carry out its activities. Reports have
shown that AI-programmed machines and computers are at least 95% regularly
3. Enhancement: AI improves the service and product effectively. It does this by
delivering good product recommendations and also improving the experience of end-
users. This can be seen in how Google's algorithm works and the various AI image
enhancing software available to end users.

Over the years, AI has helped many companies cut back on staff pay as AI has reach the point
where it can carry out routine and repetitive jobs (e.g., dish washing, customer service, etc).
According to research, although there would be a loss of jobs, 19% of workers believe that AI
would help lift the drudgery nature of their work leaving them with ample time to do more
creative work. It also leaves enough time for workers to follow the advice of the founder and
CEO of Internet Flying Machines Marc Gyongyosi. Marc said 'people need to learn about
programming like they learn new languages' he further explains that '.... in future, if you don't
know coding, you don't know programming, it's only going to get more difficult'. With a lot of
data flowing around the world, humans have begun to see the need for the automation of so
many jobs to ease.

Through AI there would be the creation of new virtual workforce which is indicated by the work-
from home and remote work that is being adopted by various companies in recent times. AI has
also helped in the creation of new products, services, and revenue sources for companies, the
workforce, and customers.

Negative impact of AI and its drawback

The adage that that what is good for the geese is also good for the gander doesn't apply in these
cases as AI negative impact would be felt more by people who engage in repetitive and routine
jobs. It was predicted by Kai-Fu Lee at his lecture held at the Northwestern University where he
said '.... the bottom 50% of the world in terms of income or education will be hurt with job
displacement'. He further predicted that AI would take over a lot of routine jobs in the near
future. Lee's predictions where recently backed by Elon Musk when he said 'computers,
intelligent machines, and robots seems like the workforce of the future'. Through zippa's research
which is published on their website, we can see the percentage of workers in the European Union
that are at risk of losing their jobs over the next 20 years this is represented in the image below.

By 2030, it is predicted that as many as 800 million individuals could be displaced by AI.
Although this might lead to the creation of new jobs that were nonexistent in the long run but
might create an economic problem in the short run. This is because the transition of the laid off
workers might lead to a dip in the economy because of the increase in the unemployment rate. A
similar example of such a situation was the great depression that occurred when America
transitioned from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy.

The drawbacks of AI

According to Lee Kai-Fu Artificial Intelligence is useless because it lacks creativity and has no
capacity for love or compassion. In recent times there has been the issue of breach privacy by
companies like Facebook and Amazon. This can be linked to the need for big data for the
continued development of AI technologies. This has led to many companies and individuals to
call for the regulations of organizations that have embedded AI systems into their products. With
companies tapping into the wild parts of the tech world, the human rights of the public have been
infringed. According to Tim Cook (CEO of Apple), companies like Facebook and Amazon are
'gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it'. He also expressed his
dissatisfaction at companies collecting personal profiles of their users, as he labels it, laziness.
He believes AI can only be seen as smart if they respect human values and rights. With AI, there
is the chance of creating super firms that could push out other firms in the same industry because
they could hop on the AI train earlier than others. It could also widen the gap between the
developed countries and the developing countries, which would increase the inequality gap that
already exists. The labor market would also be affected with the introduction of AI as some
workers would be in high demand while others would be considered irrelevant and redundant.

PROS AND CONS

Pros

 Helps with fast and accurate decision making

 Reduction in processing error
 Digital assistance
 Round the clock accuracy
 Automation of repetitive tasks

Cons

 Machines lack creativity as it only follow a set of algorithms that are pre set
 It is costly to create and maintain
 AI has not reached the same level of cognition as humans and may be unable to carry out
its function when faced with situations that might require ethical solutions or strong
judgmental ability.

Types and sub-domains of AI

One of the aims of creating AI is to enable machines to imitate the functionality, cognitive skills,
mannerisms, and thought process of the human brain. This thus allows us to easily classify AI
under the various existing types. With research showing that by 2030 at least 70% of world
companies would one form of AI, it is also important for such companies to have knowledge of
the various sub domains that exist under AI to determine which domain(s) it should adopt.

Types of Artificial Intelligence

AI is divided into two which are type 1 and type 2. Type 1 is based on capabilities of the AI
while type 2 is based on functionality. Type 1 is divided into three namely;

 Artificial Narrow Intelligence

 Artificial General Intelligence
 Artificial Super Intelligence

Artificial General
Stage 1 Intelligence Stage 3
Machine Stage 2 Machine
Learning Machine Consciousness
Intelligence
Artificial Narrow Artificial Super
Intelligence Intelligence
  Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI): this is the machine learning stage. This is the only
type of Artificial Intelligence that is in existence to this date. It is a type of AI that is
created for a single/specific action without the help of a human. It has limited/narrow
capability, hence the name. An example of ANI includes; apple's Siri, Tesla and Goggle's
self-driving cars, etc.
 Artificial General Intelligence (AGI): although still a theory, AGI is expected to be an
upgrade to ANI. It is expected to consist of multiple ANI systems and thus carry out
multiple functions without human direction. Furthermore, AGI is predicted to operate on
the same level of human cognitive skill across multiple domains. AGI is also in the
machine intelligence stage.
 Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI): this is the Machine consciousness stage. This type
of AI exceeds AGI and would therefore in theory be more intelligent and superior to
humans. In Nick Bostrom's book, he predicted an intelligent agent that is superior to
humans and I won't be surprised if ASI is the theory most science fiction movies (sci-fi)
have played around with in their movies.

AI Type 1 can be broadly grouped into two, namely the strong AI and the weak AI. Under these
two categories is where ANI, AGI, and ASI fall under. Under the weak AI is where ANI falls
under, while the strong AI consists of AGI and ASI.

Type 2 classification, which is based on functionality, is sub-divided into four namely;

 Reactive machine: this machine unlike the limited memory machines cannot store data
and does not have any memory. It is the most basic type of AI and only focuses on
current scenario and makes the best possible decision in such scenario. Example of
reactive machines includes AlphaGo by Google and the chess game played by an AI-
enhanced machine (i.e., the IBM's deep blue).
 Limited memory: although powered by AI, this machine is only able to store experience
and other data for only a short period. Examples of limited memory machines include
self-driving cars, and Chabots.
 Theory of mind: although tagged as the future of Artificial intelligence theory of mind
machines are not in existence like the two above. It is still theoretical and might take a
while before it is achieved. Theory of mind AI is expected to have the ability to connect
and understand human emotions, beliefs, and also interact with them socially.
 Self-awareness: just like Theory of mind machines, this type of AI is also not in
existence. This kind of machine is expected to be smarter and more intelligent than the
smartest human. This also means that they are expected to have their own sentiments,
consciousness, and self-awareness. It is still a theoretical concept and isn't in existence.

Sub-domain of Artificial Intelligence

 Machine Language: this is the most common form of AI. This domain/process helps the
machine/computer gain intelligence and makes decisions by analyzing data from
experience. The data is used by the machine/computer to determine patterns through
algorithms which it uses to develop a solution without involving a human agent.
  Deep learning: this is a branch of Machine learning that allows the computer/machine to
process information in layers mimicking the neural network of the human brain. Deep
learning helps the machine classify and predict the outcome of the task it is carrying out.
 Neural network: this branch of machine learning that consists of a series of algorithms
that help machines and computer systems to capture the relationship between the various
data variables while analyzing it. It helps the machine mimic and work in the same
manner as the human brain since its principles run off the human neural cells.
 Natural language processing: this AI algorithm would help machines in understanding,
reading, and interpreting natural language. This branch of AI helps computers and
machines understand texts and spoken words the same way a human's brain would as
thus helping it to communicate and respond accordingly to its user.
 Computer vision: this field of AI helps computers and machines learn and classify
information from digital videos, images, and other visual data for better decision making
and observation.
 Cognitive computing: this branch of AI helps computers simulate and mimic the human
thought process in making decisions in a complex situation where the decisions might be
uncertain and ambiguous.

It isn't necessary for a company to adopt and explore all sub-domains that is available. Some sub-
domains encompass other sub domain and example is cognitive computing, while some like
natural language learning can act as a standalone depending on the task it was created for.

Application of AI

Career opportunities in Artificial Intelligence

With the world gravitating towards a more Technological oriented economy, the need for
Artificial Intelligence has become a necessity for any organization to be in the fold. This would
call for all organizations to actively search for and recruit individuals who have decided to seek a
career related to AI. There has been a steady growth rate for experts in the AI business. With a
lot of job openings and not enough people to fill up such openings, many scholars in the
computing world have begun to encourage the younger generation and those who intend to
further improve on their skills to look to Artificial Intelligence. Below are some of the job roles
you could pick from if you are interested in going down the AI tunnel when building a career in
Artificial Intelligence;

 Deep Learning Engineering: people in this line of work are expected to work with the
other AI specialists in creating and maintaining machine learning models. They deal with
neural network and use the work of researchers to create solutions to real world
problems.
 Data Scientists: they are professionals who analytically collect and interpret data for
making decisions for an organization. They are expected to obtain insight and knowledge
from unstructured, structured, and noisy data.
 Machine learning developer: a machine learning developer is expected to make use of
different sets of algorithms and data in training, researching, designing, and building self
 running automated and predictive models. These models are then used in automating
actions like image classification and speech recognition.
 Artificial Intelligence Data Analyst: an AI Data Analyst is expected to make use of
machine learning models to collect, process, and track down statistical information from
existing data.
 Product Manager: they are in charge of identifying the customers' needs and make use
of this need to advice the company on ways to deliver differentiated product to the
market. Their main role is to ensure that the product helps the company/organization in
achieving its goals and strategy.

For one to successfully transition into any of the roles created by the emergence of AI, it is
important to know that there are some requirements to have. Depending on the area you decide
to follow below are some of the important requirement/skills you should have

 Writhing algorithm
 Machine language
 Strong mathematics background (e.g. calculus and statistics)
 Programming (e.g. java, python)

The future of AI

Artificial intelligence is shaping the future of every industry and humanity at large. In recent
times, it has acted as one of the main drivers of emerging technologies like big data, robotics,
and IoT. Russell Stuart (2018) explained that 'there are still major breakthroughs that have to
happen before we reach anything that resembles human level AI' this is enough evidence that the
limit of AI is endless and there is still a lot of wealth to be tapped into before we get to the peak
of its development. We have recently just started tapping into Artificial General Intelligence
(AGI) which is the next stage in Artificial Intelligence development. While ASI is only in theory
this gives us a whole lot to think about when we consider the future of AI in the world and its
limit. However, while thinking of the positive impacts and potentials, it is important to think of
its negative impacts. This should prompt regulatory bodies to ensure that AI is not abused or
used in an improper manner to gain an unfair advantage. They should also make sure that
policies are put in place to protect the workforce and the revenue generation of each
country/economy. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, by 2030 AI is expected to make
up 16% of the global economy and boost the Global Gross Domestic Product by 26%. Further
research has shown that AI is also expected to improve the global annual economic growth rate
in two folds and also improve the labor productivity by 40%. By the way, the question of
whether or not a machine becomes super-intelligent to take control of the world remains to be
answered and only the future would tell.