At Elm, we are wholeheartedly committed to bolstering the values of community partnerships with entrepreneurs in times of emergencies. In line with that, we hosted at our Elm 17th virtual seminar Dr. Anis Qawbaa, Director of the Robotics and IoT Research Laboratory at Prince Sultan University. Dr. Anis took the audience of his seminar "Introduction to AI and its Applications" into a journey to explore the most critical developments in the field of artificial intelligence.

The evolution of the concept of AI

The concept of AI rose in the 50s, and it was linked mostly to the applications of robots. Like the famous chess game between Kasparov and Deep Blue, which was one of AI breakthroughs at that time. In the 90s, AI took another shift towards the concept of machine learning, which enables computers to learn without programming them! The idea is that ML algorithms build a mathematical model based on sample data to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to do so. Then deep learning came to the scene to revolutionize AI and enable computers to learn on their own by stimulating neurons in the human body.

Deep Learning Areas of Application

Among deep learning-based applications is image recognition. To make it easy to comprehend, let's imagine that the neural network - in the machine - is used to recognize at least one cat. We know that cats have different types and colors, let alone how camera angles can affect pictures. So we will collect thousands of photos of that "cat" and pictures of animals other than cats, and we describe it as" not a cat". The neural network - in the machine - after being fed with all that input, will turn it into data, then collects all the different parts of the data and produce the result.

Contemporary Applications of AI

There are multiple applications of AI that are employed on a seasonal/daily basis and contribute to facilitating tasks and producing accurate results. Here is a combination of the most important applications:

Traffic Control: the app provides real-time data of traffic violations like making a wrong turn.

Monitoring Pilgrims and Umrah performers: the app helps to count the number of pilgrims and Umrah performers and filter them based on sex. The app is being developed to explore more features that help government entities to excel in finalizing their procedures.

Detecting violence in schools or residential neighborhoods.

Prayer Watch Application: the app detects prayer mistakes in kneeling and prostrating, especially for children.