Five Myths of Artificial Intelligence - Penn Medicine News Blog

The goal of artificial intelligence (AI) is to develop machines that can think, reason, and solve problems in a manner that is similar to the human brain. There are two types of AI research. The top-down approach is focused on developing an artificial brain with structure and function that is similar to that of a human. This is similar to the concept of a positronic brain that was introduced by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov and popularized in television and film with robots that exhibit consciousness such as Data from "Star Trek." In contrast, the bottom-up approach is more common and involves providing the basic building blocks that interact and build the computational complexity needed to approximate intelligence.