Artificial Intelligence Explained

Basic definitions and categorization

Francesco Corea
6 min readSep 26, 2016

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Image Credit: martoud/Shutterstock

I. Overview

Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents nowadays a paradigm shift that is driving at the same time the scientific progress as well as the industry evolution. Given the intense level of domain knowledge required to really appreciate the technicalities of the artificial engines, what AI is and can do is often misunderstood: the general audience is fascinated by its development and frightened by terminator-like scenarios; investors are mobilizing huge amounts of capital but they have not a clear picture of the competitive drivers that characterize companies and products; and managers are rushing to get their hands on the last software that may improve their productivities and revenues, and eventually their bonuses.

Even though the general optimism around creating advancements in artificial intelligence is evident (Muller and Bostrom, 2016), in order to foster the pace of growth facilitated by AI I believe it would be necessary to clarify some concepts.

II. Basic

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Francesco Corea

Data science @ Greycroft. Previously @Balderton @Anthemis @UCLA. All opinions are my own.