Narrow versus general AI

- For some people, the thought of artificial intelligence conjures up images of killer robots trying to take over the world, like they do in the famous James Cameron movie, "Terminator 2." But the AI we have today is far from that. Let's take a look at three different types of artificial intelligence to give you a better idea of what each one does. First, we have narrow artificial intelligence, or narrow AI. Narrow AI is when a machine is designed to do one task better than a human ever could and it's what we have now. This includes digital assistance, algorithmic feeds on social media, and generative AI. Narrow AI needs to be trained on a lot of data in order to spot patterns and make statistical predictions, but it can't transfer its knowledge to another task. When an AI is able to transfer its know-how to something new, similar to what humans can do, that's called general artificial intelligence. General AI is what we're most familiar with from science fiction books, movies, and TV, like the operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson in the movie "Her," or R2-D2 or C-3PO from "Star Wars." These days, a lot of companies, like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and OpenAI, are putting billions of dollars into research that will lead to general AI. But we're not there yet and there's no consensus about when we will be. On the farthest end of the spectrum is something called superintelligence and even its name sounds scary. Superintelligence, which is sometimes referred to as a singularity, is when the intelligence of machines eclipses of the collective intelligence of humanity. No one knows when or if superintelligence will ever happen, but that's why it's important to develop guidelines and regulations that always put people first. Right now, the current focus is getting a handle on narrow AI, what it does, its limitations, and how it can help you achieve your business goals. Perhaps you're using it to supplement your creative department with an AI writing or design app. Maybe it's helping you customize your digital ads in real-time or you could be looking for trends from your analytics data to get insights on customer behavior. Just remember, narrow AI is all about statistical predictions and data, so be sure you have a plan in place to safely collect, manage and protect your data.