Does Artificial Intelligence (AI) Require Coding?

Does Artificial Intelligence (AI) require coding? The short answer is yes — knowledge of coding is crucial to implement many AI solutions. AI work involves tweaking code for computers to handle abilities normally carried out by humans. 

AI is a popular field due to the advancement of technology. Even modern AI computers can play chess and beat world-renowned champions.

If you’re curious about how much coding AI requires, read on to find out.

How Does AI Require Coding?

While the applications of AI are still expanding, people have yet to discover its total abilities. A career in AI generally requires knowing several common coding languages, including Python, C++ and Java. Python is the most frequently used of these programs, and the most popular libraries for AI are Tensorflow and PyTorch. 

AI requires knowledge in logic, technology, mathematics and engineering. Furthermore, programming is needed to develop AI applications to simulate human behavior. 

Why Is Coding Important in AI?

Naturally, non-developers may find it difficult to code, yet most programming languages are straightforward. Writing code in basic English requires more words than writing with a programming language. Therefore, programming languages are essential to boosting your work productivity when building code.

Coding is important in AI because it’s needed to develop AI applications. You may be able to instruct your machine to use AI to build some of the most basic applications. However, the final results can lead to undesired outcomes when you don’t indicate the variables and instructions properly. With knowledge in coding, it makes everything seem less daunting.

Furthermore, AI programs require coding to produce outputs continually. So, it’s always better to test AI code through trials. As part of your AI career, it’s also important to focus on building code from scratch. That way, you can gain insights into how computers think so you can interpret their behaviors more effectively.

How AI Works

Many companies try to promote their products and services using AI. This refers to one element of AI, such as machine learning. However, AI requires a combination of specialized hardware and software for writing and training machine learning algorithms.

Artificial intelligence systems work by absorbing large amounts of training data, analyzing the data for patterns and correlations and using those patterns to predict future states. For instance, a chatbot will receive examples of text chats to learn how to produce human-like interactions and exchanges. Another way it works is through image recognition. AI can learn to identify and describe objects within images after ingesting millions of examples.

AI vs. Traditional Programming

There are several differences between traditional programming and artificial intelligence. With traditional programming, you need to know all the rules from the beginning. Once you have your rules, you can then turn it into an algorithm and utilize that data to write your traditional programmings — such as Python or Javascript coding. 

When coding with traditional programming, you need to be sure you know all the possible outcomes when you create your algorithms.

In AI, you already have the answers and some data. So the primary difference in traditional programming is that you know the rules, whereas, in AI, the rules are your output. 

Traditional programming is where you start by studying the problem then write the rules of the problem. Once you evaluate the process, you can capture the errors and repeat them until it works.

AI or machine learning approaches allow you to pass the parameters of developing an algorithm. Instead, they use historical data to build a partially automatic model. AI involves coding partly. However, machine learning algorithms can use different libraries to create and distribute applications. 

Python and AI

Python is one of the best programming languages for artificial intelligence and is excellent for developing web applications and more. This is a popular program among engineers because it is resourceful and allows them to design top-notch products. The programming language is consistent and enables access to numerous libraries and structures for AI. 

When using Python, you can utilize modules with pre-composed code, which you can use to perform tasks. Python libraries also give you a basic level of programming where you won’t need to start everything from scratch. 

Here are some of the top Python libraries:

• Pandas
• TensorFlow
• Matplotlib
• PyBrain
• PyTorch
• Keras
• Scikit

Python libraries will allow you to combine information effortlessly. Plus, you may find you’ll enjoy learning, prototyping and setting up artificial neural systems from large datasets. 

Applications of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is increasing in popularity each day. Now, more than ever, it’s making its way into various industries. Here are the most common sectors that use applications of AI today.

Healthcare

AI in healthcare is improving patient health outcomes and reducing costs. Healthcare companies applying machine learning are improving operations by enhancing diagnosis more efficiently.

One of the top healthcare technologies, IBM Watson, uses natural language processing to respond to questions. The system utilizes patient data to form hypotheses and presents answers with a confidence scoring schema. 

Additionally, AI applications use online virtual health assistants and chatbots to assist patients with healthcare information, billing and scheduling appointments. 

Business

Machine learning algorithms can integrate data analytics and customer relationship management platforms to serve customers better. Chatbots are also becoming part of online services to help businesses operate more efficiently in customer service.

Finance

AI is disrupting financial institutions with personal finance applications. These applications can collect personal data and provide financial solutions, making receiving a loan more seamless.

Manufacturing

In a 2020 survey at MIT, research shows that 60% of manufacturers use AI to improve production speeds and supply chain visibility.

AI works with the Internet of Things (IoT) to forecast the demand for products and tracks inventory, giving manufacturers more control over their supply chains. One example is where car companies are now using machine learning algorithms and image recognition to power a fleet of self-driving ships. This example proves that supply chain management will become more efficient and transport cargo more safely.

Cybersecurity

AI and machine learning are among cybersecurity vendors’ top offerings today. Organizations will use machine learning to keep information secure and detect suspicious activity. With AI, companies can analyze data and use logic to identify malicious code. AI will alert if any new or emerging attacks are present.

The benefit of AI in cybersecurity is that it detects threats more quickly than humans. So, this technology plays a large role in protecting organizations from cyberattacks. 

Legal Firms

In law, sifting through documents takes a long process, which can be overwhelming to people. With AI, the technology can automate the labor-intensive process, saving time and benefiting client services. 

Law firms utilize machine learning to describe data and predict outcomes. Additionally, they use computer vision to extract information from documents and natural language processing to interpret requests. 

Learning Artificial Intelligence

So, does AI require coding? Yes, because AI requires programming to understand and develop solutions.

The bottom line is that if you’re looking to learn about artificial intelligence, you should start by learning how to write code with Python. Although coding isn’t exactly a prerequisite to learn AI or machine learning, the knowledge is certainly helpful. AI can write its own code. However, if you want to produce efficient outputs, learning how to code from scratch will allow you to debug your programs. Therefore, you produce better outcomes.