AI's coming of age: Embedded AI is here!

With AI capabilities now being embedded at the device level, specific tasks can be performed on-device without the need to send data back to the cloud to run an AI model. AI models are run at the device level, on the data captured by the devices

- Krishnan Shrinivasan

Once science fiction in Hollywood films, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a technology that we have brought into our homes and workplaces to better our day-to-day lives. The groundwork is being laid for a more AI-enabled future – one where creativity is enhanced, productivity is increased, and businesses, beyond fast-food chains, are always in operation. Let’s take a look at AI.

What is AI?

AI is a term applied to computers, robots, or machines that exhibit aspects of human intelligence and reasoning, such as visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making. To achieve these capabilities, AI works by processing data to identify patterns, make predictions, and recommend actions on any given task.

AI is commonly broken into two categories – weak AI and strong AI.

Weak AI: It is limited to performing a specific function. This form of AI is anything but ‘weak’ - it’s highly intelligent at carrying out a task in its narrow scope. Some examples of weak AI include Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, or Google Assistant. These programs understand certain keywords and produce responses to commands but can’t quite discern the meaning of what was said.