Artificial Intelligence

What it is and why it matters

Artificial intelligence (AI) makes it possible for machines to learn from experience,
adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks. Most AI examples that you hear
about today – from chess-playing computers to self-driving cars – rely heavily on
deep learning and natural language processing. Using these technologies, computers
can be trained to accomplish specific tasks by processing large amounts of data and
recognizing patterns in the data.

Artificial Intelligence History

The term artificial intelligence was coined in 1956, but AI has become more popular today thanks
to increased data volumes, advanced algorithms, and improvements in computing power and
storage.

Early AI research in the 1950s explored topics like problem solving and symbolic methods. In the
1960s, the US Department of Defense took interest in this type of work and began training
computers to mimic basic human reasoning. For example, the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) completed street mapping projects in the 1970s. And DARPA produced
intelligent personal assistants in 2003, long before Siri, Alexa or Cortana were household names.

This early work paved the way for the automation and formal reasoning that we see in computers
today, including decision support systems and smart search systems that can be designed to
complement and augment human abilities.

While Hollywood movies and science fiction novels depict AI as human-like robots that take over
the world, the current evolution of AI technologies isn’t that scary – or quite that smart. Instead, AI
has evolved to provide many specific benefits in every industry. Keep reading for modern
examples of artificial intelligence in health care, retail and more.

1950s–1970s
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 Neural Networks
Early work with neural networks stirs excitement for “thinking machines.”

1980s–2010s

Machine Learning

Machine learning becomes popular.

Present Day

Deep Learning

Deep learning breakthroughs drive AI boom.

Artificial Intelligence trends to watch

Quick, watch this video to hear AI experts and data science pros weigh in on AI trends for the next
decade.

What is the role of ethics in the future of AI? How important is big data? Why is domain
knowledge crucial for the success of AI?

Most importantly: “It really is who has the data. That’s who will be the king,” says Harper Reid,
Technology Pioneer.

Why is artificial intelligence important?

 AI automates repetitive learning  AI analyzes more and deeper

and discovery through data using neural networks that
data. Instead of automating have many hidden layers.
manual tasks, AI performs Building a fraud detection system
frequent, high-volume, with five hidden layers used to be
computerized tasks. And it does impossible. All that has changed
so reliably and without fatigue. Of with incredible computer power
course, humans are still essential and big data. You need lots of
to set up the system and ask the data to train deep learning models
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 right questions. because they learn directly from
the data.
 AI adds intelligence to existing
products. Many products you  AI achieves incredible accuracy
already use will be improved with through deep neural networks.
AI capabilities, much like Siri was For example, your interactions
added as a feature to a new with Alexa and Google are all
generation of Apple products. based on deep learning. And
Automation, conversational these products keep getting more
platforms, bots and smart accurate the more you use them.
machines can be combined with In the medical field, AI techniques
large amounts of data to improve from deep learning and object
many technologies. Upgrades at recognition can now be used to
home and in the workplace, range pinpoint cancer on medical
from security intelligence and images with improved accuracy.
smart cams to investment
 AI gets the most out of data.
analysis.
When algorithms are self-
 AI adapts through progressive learning, the data itself is an
learning algorithms to let the data asset. The answers are in the
do the programming. AI finds data. You just have to apply AI to
structure and regularities in data find them. Since the role of the
so that algorithms can acquire data is now more important than
skills. Just as an algorithm can ever, it can create a competitive
teach itself to play chess, it can advantage. If you have the best
teach itself what product to data in a competitive industry,
recommend next online. And the even if everyone is applying
models adapt when given new similar techniques, the best data
data. will win.

WildTrack and SAS: Saving endangered

species one footprint at a time.

Flagship species like

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 Flagship species like
the cheetah are
disappearing. And with
them, the biodiversity
that supports us
all. WildTrack is
exploring the value of
artificial intelligence in
conservation – to
analyze footprints the
way indigenous
trackers do and protect
these endangered
animals from
extinction.

Artificial Intelligence in Today's World

Pondering AI podcast
Is artificial intelligence always biased? Does AI need humans? What will AI do next? Join
Kimberly Nevala to ponder AI’s progress with a diverse group of guests, including innovators,
activists and data experts.

Your journey to AI success

Determine if you really need artificial intelligence. And learn to evaluate if your organization is
prepared for AI. This series of strategy guides and accompanying webinars, produced by SAS
and MIT SMR Connections, offers guidance from industry pros.
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 Five AI technologies that you need to know
Read our quick overview of the key technologies fueling the AI craze. This useful introduction
offers short descriptions and examples for machine learning, natural language processing and
more.

How Artificial Intelligence Is Being Used

Every industry has a high demand for AI capabilities – including systems that can be
used for automation, learning, legal assistance, risk notification and research. Specific
uses of AI in industry include:

Health Care Retail

AI applications can provide personalized AI provides virtual shopping capabilities that
medicine and X-ray readings. Personal health offer personalized recommendations and
care assistants can act as life coaches, discuss purchase options with the consumer.
reminding you to take your pills, exercise or Stock management and site layout
eat healthier. technologies will also be improved with AI.

Manufacturing Banking
AI can analyze factory IoT data as it streams Artificial Intelligence enhances the speed,
from connected equipment to forecast precision and effectiveness of human efforts.
expected load and demand using recurrent In financial institutions, AI techniques can be
networks, a specific type of deep learning used to identify which transactions are likely to
network used with sequence data. be fraudulent, adopt fast and accurate credit
scoring, as well as automate manually intense
data management tasks.
Life sciences
Public sector
From ensuring drug safety to getting new
therapies to market faster, AI technologies can
unleash the full potential of data to solve some Artificial Intelligence can make smart cities
of our greatest health challenges. smarter. It can support national defense with
mission readiness and predictive maintenance.
Across the board, AI can improve program
efficiency and effectiveness.

Working together with AI

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 Working together with AI

Artificial intelligence is not here to replace us. It augments our abilities

and makes us better at what we do. Because AI algorithms learn
differently than humans, they look at things differently. They can see
relationships and patterns that escape us. This human, AI partnership
offers many opportunities. It can:

 Bring analytics to industries and domains where it’s

currently underutilized.

 Improve the performance of existing analytic

technologies, like computer vision and time series
analysis.

 Break down economic barriers, including language

and translation barriers.

 Augment existing abilities and make us better at what

we do.

 Give us better vision, better understanding, better

memory and much more.

The principle limitation of AI is that it learns from the data. There is no

other way in which knowledge can be incorporated. That means any
inaccuracies in the data will be reflected in the results. And any
additional layers of prediction or analysis have to be added separately.

Today’s AI systems are trained to do a clearly defined task. The system

that plays poker cannot play solitaire or chess. The system that detects
fraud cannot drive a car or give you legal advice.

In other words, these systems are very, very specialized. They are
focused on a single task and are far from behaving like humans.

What is Composite AI?

Most AI projects today rely on multiple data science technologies. According to Gartner, using a
combination of different AI techniques to achieve the best result is called composite AI. For
complex problems, the answer isn’t always one technique or another. Instead, the best answer
to any problem is often a combination of multiple techniques and technologies, like machine
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 learning, optimization and object detection.

“SAS is pushing the boundaries of the larger composite AI movement that’s happening in the
industry,” says Bryan Harris, SAS Chief Technology Officer. “Accelerated digital transformation is
demanding more sophisticated decisioning. This requires input from multiple analytic techniques,
such as descriptive statistics, natural language processing, deep learning, audio processing,
computer vision and more. Companies that can quickly harness these analytic techniques
ultimately have a competitive advantage in their digital transformation.”

SAS ® Visual Data

Mining and Machine
Learning
AI is simplified when you can prepare
data for analysis, develop models with
modern machine-learning algorithms and
integrate text analytics all in one product.
Plus, you can code projects that
combine SAS with other languages,
including Python, R, Java or Lua.

How Artificial Intelligence Works

AI works by combining large amounts of data with fast, iterative processing and intelligent
algorithms, allowing the software to learn automatically from patterns or features in the data. AI is
a broad field of study that includes many theories, methods and technologies, as well as the
following major subfields:
 Machine learning automates analytical model building. It uses methods
from neural networks, statistics, operations research and physics to find
hidden insights in data without explicitly being programmed for where to
look or what to conclude.

 A neural network is a type of machine learning that is made up of

interconnected units (like neurons) that processes information by
responding to external inputs, relaying information between each unit. The
process requires multiple passes at the data to find connections and
derive meaning from undefined data.

 Deep learning uses huge neural networks with many layers of processing
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 units, taking advantage of advances in computing power and improved
training techniques to learn complex patterns in large amounts of data.
Common applications include image and speech recognition.

 Computer vision relies on pattern recognition and deep learning to

recognize what’s in a picture or video. When machines can process,
analyze and understand images, they can capture images or videos in
real time and interpret their surroundings.

 Natural language processing (NLP) is the ability of computers to analyze,

understand and generate human language, including speech. The next
stage of NLP is natural language interaction, which allows humans to
communicate with computers using normal, everyday language to perform
tasks.

Additionally, several technologies enable and support AI:

 Graphical processing units are key to AI because they provide the heavy
compute power that’s required for iterative processing. Training neural
networks requires big data plus compute power.

 The Internet of Things generates massive amounts of data from

connected devices, most of it unanalyzed. Automating models with AI will
allow us to use more of it.

 Advanced algorithms are being developed and combined in new ways to

analyze more data faster and at multiple levels. This intelligent processing
is key to identifying and predicting rare events, understanding complex
systems and optimizing unique scenarios.

 APIs, or application programming interfaces, are portable packages of

code that make it possible to add AI functionality to existing products and
software packages. They can add image recognition capabilities to home
security systems and Q&A capabilities that describe data, create captions
and headlines, or call out interesting patterns and insights in data.

In summary, the goal of AI is to provide software that can reason on input and explain on output.
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 AI will provide human-like interactions with software and offer decision support for specific tasks,
but it’s not a replacement for humans – and won’t be anytime soon.
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