19 - Artificial Intelligence

Summary

The term ‘artificial intelligence’ or just ‘AI’ is a buzz word tossed around at liberty in many publications and on the internet today. It is often used to refer to technologies for very specific tasks where human labour would be expensive, or subject to error due to endless repetition. Such technology has considerable applications in many fields of present-day engineering, in digitally based manufacturing and in important scientific domains such as medical research, diagnosis and treatment. Where the technology is used to replace human operators, as on assembly lines, it is more accurately known as robotics. The basis for such technology lies in high-performance computers,¹ which have been programmed to perform precise complex tasks. The programming behind such computers is generally declarative, that is, the computers are given precise instructions about what they are to do.