You probably interact with artificial intelligence (AI) more than you realize. So, there’s never been a better time to start figuring out how it all works.   Join Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham as they decode the fundamentals of AI so that anyone, irrespective of their technical background, can leverage the benefits of AI and tap into its infinite potential.   Together with Senior Cloud Engineer Nick Commisso, they take you through key AI concepts, common AI tasks and domains, and the primary differences between AI, machine learning, and deep learning.   Oracle MyLearn: https://mylearn.oracle.com/   Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/   X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Himanshu Raj, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.   --------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started! 00:26 Nikita: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast. I’m Nikita Abraham, Principal Technical Editor with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs. Lois: Hi there! Welcome to a new season of the Oracle University Podcast. I’m so excited about this season because we’re going to delve into the world of artificial intelligence. In upcoming episodes, we’ll talk about the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and machine learning. And we’ll discuss neural network architectures, generative AI and large language models, the OCI AI stack, and OCI AI services. 01:06 Nikita: So, if you’re an IT professional who wants to start learning about AI and ML or even if you’re a student who is familiar with OCI or similar cloud services, but have no prior exposure to this field, you’ll want to tune in to these episodes. Lois: That’s right, Niki. So, let’s get started. Today, we’ll talk about the basics of artificial intelligence with Senior Cloud Engineer Nick Commisso. Hi Nick! Thanks for joining us today. So, let’s start right at the beginning. What is artificial intelligence? 01:36 Nick: Well, the ability of machines to imitate the cognitive abilities and problem solving capabilities of human intelligence can be classified as artificial intelligence or AI.  01:47 Nikita: Now, when you say capabilities and abilities, what are you referring to? Nick: Human intelligence is the intellectual capability of humans that allows us to learn new skills through observation and mental digestion, to think through and understand abstract concepts and apply reasoning, to communicate using a language and understand the nonverbal cues, such as facial recognition, tone variation, and body language.  You can handle objections in real time, even in a complex setting. You can plan for short and long-term situations or projects. And, of course, you can create music and art or invent something new like an original idea.  If you can replicate any of these human capabilities in machines, this is artificial general intelligence or AGI. So in other words, AGI can mimic human sensory and motor skills, performance, learning, and intelligence, and use these abilities to carry out complicated tasks without human intervention.  When we apply AGI to solve problems with specific and narrow objectives, we call it artificial intelligence or AI.  02:55 Lois: It seems like AI is everywhere, Nick. Can you give us some examples of where AI is used? Nick: AI is all around us, and you've probably interacted with AI, even if you didn't realize it. Some examples of AI can be viewing an image or an object and identifying if that is an apple or an orange. It could be examining an email and classifying it spam or not. It co