What is artificial intelligence? And what do we actually know about human intelligence? How intelligent can artificial intelligence be in comparison? And more importantly: what effects will the advances in this field have on our society?
Artificial intelligence offers plenty of room for speculation about the future. What is certain is that this technology has already changed our everyday life in far-reaching ways and will continue to do so. We have already been supported by algorithms in a wide range of areas such as autonomous driving, security technology, marketing or social media for a long time. Artificial intelligence is even used to create works of art. But how many of our tasks do we want to outsource to machines? No other development in our time poses such a clear question about how we want to employ our technological means in a societal context.
Social transformation due to artificial intelligence is already in full swing. In order to get our bearings with it, we need a basic understanding of this technology. Understanding AI presents the most important technical aspects of artificial intelligence as well as concrete examples of how they are used. Here visitors can discover how machines and their sensors “perceive” the world in comparison to humans, what machine learning is, or how automatic facial recognition works, among other things. They can also learn about various social and ethical issues such as deep fakes (deceptively genuine-seeming pictures or videos made automatically using neural networks), the effects of using digital methods for profiling, and the hidden side of our everyday electronic devices such as smartphones. New creative applications made possible by artificial intelligence are also on display for visitors to experience. There are no easy answers about how to use artificial intelligence or what its dangers are, but Understanding AI provides a broad basis of information to help us navigate this complex field.
