You've probably heard of artificial intelligence by now. But what is AI, why are people talking about it now, and what will it mean for your everyday life? SunTrust recently released a report that breaks down how AI works, so let's tackle those questions one at a time. AI is what people call computer programs that try to replicate how the human brain operates. For now, they only can replicate very specific tasks.

The iCub robot tries to catch a ball during the Innorobo European summit, an event dedicated to the service robotics industry, in Lyon, central France, Thursday, March 15, 2012. You've probably heard of artificial intelligence by now. But what is AI, why are people talking about it now, and what will it mean for your everyday life? SunTrust recently released a report that breaks down how AI works, so let's tackle those questions one at a time. AI is what people call computer programs that try to replicate how the human brain operates.

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft's newest online AI, CaptionBot, tries to identify what's in an uploaded photo, using two recognition APIs recently released by Microsoft Cognitive Services for app developers– "Computer Vision" and "Emotion". But while Microsoft brags that their AI "can understand thousands of objects, as well as the relationships between them," bloggers are also sharing funny examples of CaptionBot's many mistakes. While it correctly identified Bea Arthur, Ozzy Osbourne and Joan Jett, and a movie poster with Arnold Schwarzenegger, it mistakenly identified Gene Simmons of KISS as "a woman in a red jacket…sitting on a motorcycle," described a wedding dress as "a cat wearing a tie," mistook Michelle Obama for a cellphone, and described one man's Twitter avatar as "a close up of two giraffes near a tree." But CNNMoney reports that the AI is apparently programmed to ignore all images of Hitler and other Nazi symbolism (as well as Osama bin Laden), reporting that Microsoft's AI "often came back with'I really can't describe the picture' and a confused emoji. It did, however, identify other Nazi leaders like Joseph Mengele and Joseph Goebbels."