Impact of AI
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is where a computer system is designed to perform tasks that would normally need human intelligence. Working out the words in a recording, spotting a pattern in a photo, planning a delivery route or deciding what to do next are all jobs that used to rely on a person. An AI system is built to do them instead.
How an AI system works
An AI system runs an algorithm — a set of instructions — and many also use patterns in data. The system follows its instructions, compares what it is given with patterns it has stored, and produces an answer. That answer can look clever, but the system does not think, understand or have intentions. A chatbot answering questions about opening times on a shop's website is not being helpful on purpose: it matches your words to stored patterns and replies with the closest match.
| Task | What a person would need to do | What the AI system actually does |
|---|---|---|
| Writing down the words in a voice message | Listen and understand speech | Compares the sound patterns with stored patterns and picks the closest match |
| Planning the quickest route for a delivery van | Work out a sensible order for the stops | Follows rules that compare possible routes and picks a short one |
| Reading handwritten postcodes on envelopes | Read each address and understand the writing | Checks the shapes of the letters against stored patterns |
AI does not need a body
AI can be entirely software, such as a chatbot or a program that sorts songs into playlists by their style, so it does not need a physical body. A robot is only one form an AI can take, by giving the software a machine with sensors and motors to act in the world.
Practise this
Edexcel GCSE Computer Science · Impact of AI