Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been touted as the second great transformation of the 21st century. It drives virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa, self-driving cars, as well as other sophisticated data analysis. When discussing AI, we typically hear the two broad classifications called Weak AI and Strong AI.
Definition of Weak AI
Voice recognition software like Apple’s Siri and Amazon Alexa are perfect example of the Weak AI Yeah, these AI’s can do a few tasks like answering questions , setting reminders for you and playing music but they doesnt actually know that what to speak or how it should be spoken. Their intelligence is limited to their AI and cannot be re-applied, output anywhere else outside of the exact area they are programmed for.
Strong AI, unlike weak ai can actually do the tasks that are considered to be only completed by humans. In theory, it would be powerful enough to carry out any work that is done by a human brain and then some.
If Strong AI were to actually be achieved, it would not just simulate human-like responses based on specific commands but have genuine comprehension across the board. It could think, reason and adapt on its own without needing a list pre-programmed answers to all the specific scenarios.
One of the biggest contrasts between Weak AI and Strong Al is their ability to perform multiple tasks. Weak AI is specialized. They are created to do certain tasks extremely well, but they fail miserably when asked them to step outside those boundaries. Strong AI, however would have the ability to undertake a broad array of tasks as much like that of human brain. Such a system would generalize to any problem, even if it had never seen that task before.
Cognitive understanding
Weak AI simply functions to process algorithms and rule matching of certain things, but it is incapable of true cognitive awareness. Though it may at times seem to function like a human, on the requested doing and deciding; note however that It does not “think” or “comprehend”—at least through any of our definitions. A Weak AI chess program can beat a human through pattern recognition and adherence to the rules of gameplay, but it does not possess an understanding of Chess as humans do.
Conversely Strong AI would mean having cognitive abilities similar to those of human consciousness. It would recognize ideas, obtain information from past occurrences and use it elsewhere.
Weak AI: Those are systems which have a little amount of autonomy. While they are programmed to follow a certain set of rules or training data, they depend heavily on human input for functionality. Having said this, the use of AI in these areas do not operate independently without human supervision and are autonomous.
There are all Weak AI systems in practice we use today. Although research in machinelearning, natural language processing(NLP) and robotics is progressing at the fast pace, noneof these systems have general intelligenceplus capabilities present in Streng AI. Weak AI is what we use for most of our tools and trending applications today, however, a machine has yet to be created that can think like Strong AI.
Creating Strong AI would be highly dependent on advances in our knowledge of consciousness, learning and other aspects of intelligence. Most feel that the strongest AI is still years, if not centuries away.
Weak AI is currently part and parcel of our mundane existence and Strong AI continues to be a top draw among researchers, technologists. Weak AI does something that is an expert in, but doesn’t have human cognitive ability; strong ai can think like a person and learn anything. Increasingly as research evolves the distinction between these two may become blurred, in turn generating novel ideas and difficulties for AI.