Artificial intelligence (A.I.) refers to computer systems that deal independently with clearly defined tasks. A.I. operates in many applications that people already use in everyday life: the voice input on smartphones, the purchase recommendations on online platforms, or the newsfeed on social media. The computer system has to be trained in order to become “intelligent”. It is programmed to process very large amounts of data according to certain rules. That is how A.I. learns to recognise patterns in these data and to derive actions from that.

Suggestions on streaming services would be a practical example of how A.I. works. When watching specific series on a streaming service like Netflix, the A.I. remembers these choices. It creates a profile about a person’s search and viewing habits. Details about age, sex and device data are part of this profile. Since A.I. does not only learn from the individual user data but also from other users with similar profiles, the recommendations usually match the individual preferences very well. If you want to learn more, you can find a learning module on artificial intelligence (only available in German) in the focus modules provided by fit4internet.