AI is one of the fastest growing areas in technology and it has already captured hearts & souls of many scientists, technologist as well every common man. In the space of AI, there are generally two conceptual ends being talked about — Strong AI and Weak AI. To really appreciate what these two breeds of artificial intelligence can do, it is crucial to understand the difference between them.
Defining strong AI
Artificial General Intelligence , also called strong AI, refers to a machine being able to perceive its environment and learn about it in the way humans do. The goal of strong AI is to develop human-quality intelligence, which can also conduct high-level perceived tasks such as logical reasoning and self-awareness.
Not only would strong AI systems do the task that they are programmed to specialize in doing, but also be able learn from their experience and apply this knowledge (abstracted concepts derived therein) outside of previously seen scenarios. This is what makes Strong AI more self-learning, where it can take decisions on its own rather than being programmed to perform certain limited tasks.
Defining weak AI
Narrow AI — artificial intelligence dedicated to just one specific task. Weak AI, unlike Strong Ai can never generalize the knowledge beyond its programmed functions. Although these systems are generally good at getting done what they were designed to do, but if you ask them a problem not related the domain in which it works best then chances for failure increases.
General implications of AIAdvanced Best AppsImpact on Governance and PoliticsIt can eliminate the ignorance from around people as they will now be able to think, understand and apply what must have been schools or colleges. Even if it seems like these kinds of systems can be intelligent, they have no consciousness or comprehension and certainly limited cognitive ability.
Characteristics of Weak AI
Task Specific: Weak AI is designed for a particular type of task like playing chess, recognising faces or translating languages.
Lack of Self-Awareness: I the most favourable case Weak AI systems, do not have any kind Consciousness or Awareness like Strong Al. They work with pre-defined rules and data sets.
Weak AI is more adaptable then narrow or consumer AI in that it has the ability to learn through techniques such as machine learning, and therefore can improve over time at tasks within a limited domain. It like strong A cannot operate outside of these guidelines however.
Strong AI: Refers to a computer with human cognitive abilities or capacity; may be equal to, greater than, less than the sum of these capabilities.
Narrow AI: Performs simple tasks and cannot apply what it learns to problems beyond its domain.
Strong AI vs Weak Aistrong— strong Enough that you can learn things from different experience and apply it to new separate situations.
Real-World Applications
Applicable in daily lives : Weak AI Examples include:
Suggestion Systems: With platforms like Netflix, YouTube or Amazon leveraging AI to recommend consumers products of interest that correlates closely with their behaviours.
Self-driving cars: These use AI for the software that plays a vital role to perceive objects and navigate, but do not simulate human intelligence.
Problems and morale issues
Strong AI what its development is cause of a lot ethical concerns. Risks = Human level of knowledge and autonomy in a machine that extends itself beyond control. We are going to have more and larger existential questions of responsibility… accountability, control etc at every level as we come to a time were systems could theoretically operate autonomous from human supervision.
The difference between Strong AI and Weak AI is key to knowing where Artificial Intelligence stands today, and more broadly what its future potential might be. Weak AI is providing transformative services to businesses and people alike, but the depiction of what Strong AI might become still remains an idea imposed on our imagination. This discussion will have huge implications as much work is done on developing AI.