Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an increasing part of our everyday lives, powering our smartphones and the internet of things. But few people really understand what it is, how it works and more importantly, why it is so important to their business. The Oxford English Dictionary defines artificial intelligence (AI) as the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. For many people in Business, the language used in data science can be confusing. It is far simpler to explain by simply saying, 'powered by AI'.

In 2015, Caroline Sinders was working as a design researcher at IBM when she began to have questions about how Watson, the company's artificial intelligence system, was being developed. AI systems like Watson must be "trained" with data sets--for example, given a large batch of confirmed photographs of stop signs from different angles, in different lighting, and of different quality to be able to recognize stop signs on their own. Sinders was curious about these data sets: The process of correctly categorizing millions of data points seemed like a herculean task in its own right; where, exactly, was all this data coming from? "A lot of my coworkers were like, 'I don't know why you're asking us these questions, we're just supposed to build this system out,'" she recalls. While Sinders's coworkers may have been able to push the question aside, finding the answer of where the data sets necessary to train artificial intelligence systems come from eventually led her to the world of crowd-working platforms.

The Very Human Labor That Powers Artificial Intelligence. Crowd-working platforms like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk obscure—and exploit—the human …

Apple Inc. got an early start in artificial intelligence software with the 2011 introduction of Siri, a tool that lets users operate their smartphones with voice commands. Now the electronics giant is bringing artificial intelligence to chips. Apple is working on a processor devoted specifically to AI-related tasks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The chip, known internally as the Apple Neural Engine, would improve the way the company's devices handle tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence -- such as facial recognition and speech recognition, said the person, who requested anonymity discussing a product that hasn't been made public. Engineers at Apple are racing to catch their peers at Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. in the booming field of artificial intelligence. While Siri gave Apple an early advantage in voice-recognition, competitors have since been more aggressive in deploying AI across their product lines, including Amazon's Echo and Google's Home digital assistants.

Apple is working on chips to power artificial-intelligence capabilities in its gadgets, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported Friday. The chips would handle more advanced AI tasks, such as facial recognition, and help better manage battery life and power, the report says. The chips could also be used in future products, like self-driving cars or digital glasses, in addition to iPhones and iPads. The news comes as Apple's competitors like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have made significant advancements in AI. At its developers conference last week, Google showed how it was adding AI to a variety of products, including phones, connected speakers, and cars.