What even is an AI?

AI stands for "Artificial Intelligence". In short, a program that can learn as it gains more information on a given topic or set of instructions that allow it to make decisions on it's own without human instruction. The applications for this kind of software is incredible, from automatic maintenance on web servers, to self-driving cars. These smart machines are already changing the world. They don't come without concerns however. In the case of self-driving cars, it brings up the ethical issue of who's fault is a car accident? Is it the car, Is it the manufacturer, the passenger in the car, or no one at all? On top of that you would have to think about how an insurance company would cover such an incident. AI is touchy. It's a relatively new concept but its practical applications are immense. These programs can do mathematics calculations far faster than humans can and for infinite amounts of time to find solutions to equations. Scientists currently use them to discover new planets and calculate the mass of black holes. They are also being used in the medical field to develop new medicine. You may often see articles wary of AI because of movies like "The Terminator" with rouge AI's like Skynet that take over the world. Those kinds of AI are merely a figment of human imagination, in reality AI is doing so much more for the world and are propelling us to the future.


Relevant links:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/artificial-intelligence.html

Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhCzX0iLnOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_9OluD0nqw 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJeNghZXtMo