Microsoft India's President Shares the 'ABC' of AI and Why the Technology is Happening Today Time and again, the best minds in worlds have tried to carry out multiple experiments to showcase how AI worked

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the one the buzzing word of this decade. But do you know the word has been buzzing in the world of electronics and computer since the 1950s?

In the year 1950, Alan Turing, a computer scientist and mathematician, authored a paper called "Computing Machinery and Intelligence', which introduced the concept of Turing Test, a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to or indistinguishable from, that of a human.

Since then, time and again, the best minds in worlds have tried to carry out multiple experiments to showcase how AI worked. But there wasn't significant news until the 1990s when Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in game one of a six-game match. Then came in IBM's Watson and various other applications from Microsoft and Google, and the ball started rolling the right direction.

Today, from the predictive keyboard to the maps on our smartphones, AI is part and parcel of our lives. But have you wondered why did AI take this long to pick up the pace?

During a media briefing, at the sidelines of Nasscom Technology & Leadership Form, Anant Maheshwari, President of Microsoft India said that the "ABC' of AI is the reason why it's integrated to our lives and is the talk of the town. He says, "Today, the world is seeing the shift of this ABC coming together as a full recipe and hence the technology is part of lives."

So, what is this ABC?

A: Analytics

Analytics is the power of algorithms, software and capabilities that exist today and is helping the higher order of capability of processing and creating AI.

"People understand the software and analytics have made its advances," he pointed out.

B: Big Data

Big Data is very differentiator here. Just look at the amount of data that we have generating today and in especially in India with the power of Digital India and multiple other capabilities such as payments, Aadhaar and so on. There is a lot of data that exists.

He shared that, in 2018, the total amount of data that we would have seen in the year would be about 16 zettabytes. By 2020 or 2021, the data is estimated to generate would be 47 Zettabytes.

"So literally, in two-three years, it will multiply by 2-3x. And that's the amount of data that you are generating and this data is the reason why AI is happening today," Maheshwari added.

C: Cloud

Cloud is an extremely important part of this journey.

"You can have all the algorithms of the world and the big data. But if you don't have the computing power of the cloud that exists today - it is ubiquitous, available at any point and be it a startup or a developer, you can really harness it," he said.