ABSTRACT
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term with a long history. Some researchers propose that it stretches back to philosophers like Aristotle and Thomas Hobbes who asked questions on basic cognitive operations and wondered if reasoning could be automatised. Others say these fundamental questions were only answered in the 20th century when the first computers were being created.
This chapter discusses AI, commonly defined as “a system’s ability to interpret external data correctly, to learn from such data, and to use this learning to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible adaptation”. It describes the ability of AI and AI-empowered analytics to provide greater efficiency and productivity, economic growth, and cheap products.
Business leaders around the world are eager to implement AI technologies. Yet the upcoming AI revolution is clouded with uncertainties and misconceptions. This chapter explains the phases of AI, showing how its development has gone through cycles of success and declining enthusiasm and explaining why this happens.
This chapter discusses the concept of an AI revolution. Each new age of innovation has brought a revolution. First, there was steam; this was followed by mass production and information technology. The Fourth Revolution will be an age of AI, advanced automation, and sophisticated robotics.
This chapter points out the need for increasingly smarter ways of processing immense quantities of data sustainably and efficiently. Consequently, AI will continue to be developed.
