A beginner's guide to artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cognitive computing

For millennia, humans have pondered the idea of building intelligent machines. Ever since, artificial intelligence (AI) has had highs and lows, demonstrated successes and unfulfilled potential. Today, the news is filled with the application of machine learning algorithms to new problems. From cancer detection and prediction to image understanding and summarization and natural language processing, AI is empowering people and changing our world. The history of modern AI has all the elements of a great drama. Beginning in the 1950s with a focus on thinking machines and interesting characters like Alan Turing and John von Neumann, AI began its first rise. Decades of booms and busts and impossibly high expectations followed, but AI and its pioneers pushed forward.