If you've been keeping up with online trends, you've likely seen numerous articles and videos about ChatGPT recently. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot that interacts in a text-based dialogue format. It quickly took the world by storm, reaching 100 million users within just two months of its launch. Beyond its ability to mimic natural human conversation, what is truly eye-opening is its capability to handle relatively complex language tasks, including writing poetry and articles. All of this can be attributed to the powerful learning ability of artificial intelligence (AI). But what exactly is artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence is a relatively modern invention, becoming a formal discipline only about 70 years ago. At that time, the father of AI, Alan Turing, was curious whether machines could mimic human cognition and learning processes, using logical reasoning and existing information to solve problems and make decisions. He later proposed the "Turing Test" to assess whether a machine could display intelligence comparable to that of a human.
"Machine Learning" is an important branch of artificial intelligence, focusing on designing and analyzing algorithms that enable computers to "learn" automatically. After repeated learning, machines can automatically analyze data and identify patterns, using those patterns to make predictions about unknown data.
In daily life, you might be surprised to learn that machine learning is ubiquitous, integrated into various aspects of society. In healthcare, machines can learn to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy X-ray images by studying countless normal and abnormal examples, assisting doctors in diagnosing patients. In translation, machines can input and compare sentence structures and word associations across different languages, significantly improving translation accuracy. The search engines and voice recognition systems we use every day are also products of machine learning. ChatGPT, mentioned earlier, is trained using reinforcement learning, which allows it to generate coherent responses. However, it is ultimately a continually learning AI, and errors in encoding and decoding between AI-generated texts can lead to confusing outputs, resulting in seemingly reasonable yet incorrect or absurd answers.
Artificial intelligence serves as a testament to human technological advancement, offering deep, rapid, and repetitive learning capabilities that greatly assist humanity. At the same time, the popularity of ChatGPT has raised alarms in academia, the arts, and publishing regarding misuse and misinformation, prompting renewed reflection on the ethics of AI across various sectors. Currently, artificial intelligence is a significant trend in the tech world, and we should strive to understand its history, principles, and both positive and negative impacts comprehensively. Hong Kong Reading City offers a series of books explaining artificial intelligence in an accessible manner, helping you gradually understand this field.