Page 8 - AI Vol 1: Foundations of AI

a significant challenge for AI, as it demands a
blend of strategic planning, pattern recognition, THE TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES
and adaptive tactics. AlphaGo used advanced WE’VE DEVELOPED ARE REALLY

machine learning techniques, including deep THE FIRST FEW DROPS OF
neural networks and reinforcement learning to WATER IN THE VAST OCEAN OF
master the game. The AI learned from thousands WHAT AI CAN DO.
of human-played games and, more importantly, -FEI-FEI LI
by playing games against itself, learning and
evolving its strategies. AlphaGo’s victory was a
profound illustration of AI’s potential in tasks that

require not just raw computational power, but a
form of reasoning and adaptive learning.

The mid-2010s saw a significant advancement in
AI with the introduction of attention mechanisms
and the development of transformers. Rather than
processing language in a fixed linear manner,
resulting in the loss of context and nuance, these
attention mechanisms allowed AI to “focus” on

relevant parts of input data, enhancing its ability
to understand context and meaning. In 2017,
a landmark paper introduced the transformer
model, built primarily upon attention mechanisms,
which allowed more efficient and effective data
processing. Transformers paved the way for
the development of LLMs like OpenAI’s GPT

(Generative Pretrained Transformer) series. These at a rapid pace, the consumer and enterprise
models, trained on vast amounts of text data, could demand for AI systems has supercharged these
generate coherent and contextually relevant text, advancements. Perhaps most significantly,
perform language translations, answer questions, these advanced AI systems have entered the
and more. mainstream and begun to impact our professional
and personal lives. Society has begun to explore
In the years since, LLMs have grown in size and and discuss how to implement AI and adapt to a
complexity, and developed capabilities on a nearly world where the vision of the Dartmouth Summer
exponential scale. The introduction of ChatGPT, Research Project is ever closer to a reality –

and its unprecedented popularity, brought the where “machines use language, form abstractions
latest developments in AI into the mainstream. and concepts, solve the kinds of problems now
While AI research had already been developing reserved for humans, and improve themselves.”

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