The Types of AI: A Comprehensive Guide

Everyone and their dog seems to be talking about artificial intelligence (AI) in 2023.

Once a topic for geeky futurists, it’s now gone well and truly mainstream.

What’s more, the impact could be enormous.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently said the technology was “more profound than fire.”

 

‘AI more profound than fire or electricity’, says #Google CEO #SunderPichai

Watch!https://t.co/ZQHHaXrFgt

— WION (@WIONews) April 18, 2023

To drive the point home, AI machines are already having a massive impact on the business world.

Oberlo estimates the number of companies adopting the technology grew by 270 percent over the last four years, while PwC says it could contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

That’s like adding another United States of America.

Unfortunately, for regular marketers and brand reps, the picture remains complicated.

You know what AI is in general terms, but you have no idea what types of AI machines are out there or how they could benefit your business.

That’s why we’ve put this post together.

It explores the various types of AI systems and how they apply to the real world.

You’ll learn about multiple technologies, including our very own Optimo, which can automate dozens of time-consuming marketing tasks.

You’ll also learn how to use the different types of AI in marketing and some best practices.

So, without further ado, let’s begin!

What Are The 4 Types Of Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence can be categorized into four main types: reactive AI, limited memory AI, theory of mind AI, and self-aware AI.

Reactive AI

Reactive AI is the simplest type, as it can only react to the current situation based on pre-programmed rules.

Programmers engineer it to generate predictable outputs based on the input it receives.

These machines always respond to situations identically, hence their name.

Unlike machine learning models, they cannot incorporate new capacities into their programming or plan novel future actions.

IBM’s Deep Blue computer beating world champion Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997 is an excellent example of such an AI.

It observed the moves made by the human champion and then used them to develop a winning strategy.

However, it was useless for all other tasks.

Limited Memory AI

Limited memory AI can make decisions based on past experiences and learn from them.

Unlike reactive machines that only respond to present circumstances, this AI can store past experiences and use them for temporary knowledge.

Present-day AI systems use this technology in voice assistants, object detection, chatbots, and more.

Researchers believe limited memory machines will soon make autonomous vehicles feasible.

Systems will drive safely and efficiently among human drivers by observing their environment, detecting patterns or changes, and adapting accordingly.

They will do this by remembering information about road conditions, weather, and traffic behavior.

By combining observational and stored data, they can tell self-driving cars how to adjust their speed, direction, or braking, given any circumstances.

Limited memory AI is one of the most advanced and widely-used AI models impacting everyday life.

However, it cannot understand human emotions, beliefs, or intentions.

As such, it remains in the category of artificial-narrow intelligence because it operates in a limited domain.

Theory Of Mind AI

Theory of mind AI can understand the emotions and thoughts of others.

As such, it represents a decisive movement towards strong AI and artificial general intelligence.

Theory of mind AI is a branch of artificial intelligence that attempts to equip machines with the ability to understand and predict the mental states of other intelligent agents (such as human beings).

The name comes from the psychological concept of “theory of mind” – a set of observations describing people’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions and how these affect their behavior.

Any machine learning tool that incorporated this theory would have considerable emotional intelligence and could explain their decision-making processes in language humans understand.

Researchers consider theory of mind AI systems as having “hot cognition,” meaning they can adapt their thinking to perceived emotional states.

AI’s in this category could act as therapists or write sensitive emails to angry clients (as our very own Optimo does).

However, unlike reactive machines and narrow AI, theory-of-mind machines are still emerging technology.

Studies suggest that large language models, such as GPT-3 and GPT-4 may have developed these abilities based on their training data, but such conclusions remain controversial.

You can watch the following AI Explained video for a full overview.

Self Aware AI

Self-aware AI is the most advanced AI as it understands the world around it and has consciousness and self-awareness.

Researchers would likely consider this type of AI a form of artificial general intelligence were it to emerge because it would resemble the conscious quality of the human mind.

AI industry insiders believe that self-aware AI remains firmly in the realm of science fiction.

However, some AI research indicates it could be possible.

This super AI would likely have natural language processing and data analysis capabilities far beyond human beings.

Furthermore, such a system would also be more practical.

The most capable forms could surpass human intelligence trillionfold, plunging humanity into what futurists like Ray Kurzweil call the “singularity.”

Whether it is possible to create machines like these remains controversial.

Nobel prize-winning mathematician and physics theorist Roger Penrose argues in his book, The Emperor’s New Mind, that the development of conscious AI systems is unlikely under the current computational paradigm.

A new, possibly biological approach may be necessary.

How Do AI Types Differ From Human Intelligence?

Reactive, limited memory, and mind theory AI systems differ substantially from human intelligence.

That’s because the human brain is a type of general intelligence, while these machines are not.

Purely reactive machines, autonomous driving systems, and ChatGPT cannot write essays, drive cars, reason from first principles, and navigate the world’s complexity simultaneously, whereas a person can.

Other fundamental differences exist, too.

For instance, the human brain can extrapolate general concepts from limited examples to form conclusions.

Today’s AI machines, for all their brilliance, cannot.

For example, children only require a hot stove to burn them once to learn it causes pain, while techniques such as deep learning require millions or billions of examples to work properly.

Worse still, reinforcement learning requires human input and calibration to perform well.

Such machines cannot learn by themselves.

Finally, AI-based systems don’t have a conscious conceptual model of the world in their minds.

Therefore, it is hard for them to be genuinely original and creative or independently navigate reality without human support.

Neural networks can perform a specific task at lightning speed but do not yet integrate common sense.

future artificial general intelligence may pass the Turing Test and convince other intelligent agents (such as people) that it is real.

However, whether it embodies genuine subjective experience will remain a mystery – something Australian philosopher David Chalmers calls “the hard problem of consciousness.”

Machine superintelligence could be conscious, but there is no objective, scientific way to find out.

Why Are The Types Of Artificial Intelligence Important?

The main benefit of the various types of AI for marketing professionals is their ability to automate tasks.

Historically, reactive and limited memory machines only had a few marketing applications.

They could search for keywords or help in image recognition, but they couldn’t sense emotional signals or engage in unsupervised learning.

Now, though, that’s changing.

Optimo can generate titles and meta descriptions, write blogs, convert posts into Twitter feeds, create product descriptions, and suggest content calendars based on natural language inputs.

Just give it verbal instructions (as you might a human), and it’ll generate intelligent suggestions in seconds.

Optimo and similar AIs can perform these feats because their understanding of the world is improving.

Billions of data points combined with advanced machine learning models mean they are starting to interpret inputs similarly to humans.

The result is massive time savings for marketers and the ability to earn higher revenues.

How To Use The Types Of AI In Marketing

Reactive machines are okay for marketing, but the real progress today is thanks to those that embody an understanding of the human mind.

That’s where Optimo can help.

Marketers and branding professionals can use it for multiple applications to save enormous amounts of time, improve results, and provide their clients with better service.

Write Ads Instantly

For instance, Optimo leverages large language model (LLM) technology to automate Facebook and Google Ad production.

Just describe what you want your ad to be about (providing as much detail as you require), and the tool generates suggestions in seconds.

For example, here’s an example of Optimo creating ad copy for a company that sells cycling components:

You can see how the suggestions are human-like because they make sense in the context of the instructions we provided.

Accelerate Social Media Content Creation

You can also use Optimo to accelerate social media content creation.

The tool lets you create Instagram captions, social media post ideas, Instagram Reel ideas, content calendars, Tweet ideas, and TikTok or Reel scripts in seconds.

Let’s say you can’t think of any new social media post ideas.

With Optimo, you can enter a topic or industry and get ten awesome concepts instantly.

For our hypothetical cycling components company, we can just write “cycling components” and press “click to generate.”

Here’s what it looks like in practice:

Optimo suggests ideas you can use immediately.

And, thanks to its advanced AI, they all make sense.

Generate More Copy For Your Clients

You can also use Optimo to speed up copywriting.

The tool offers AI-powered proofreading, a statistics generator, an FAQ page generator, and the ability to write blog intros, titles, and entire posts.

Here’s an example of Optimo in action, writing a post about cycling:

In short, Optimo does all the hard work for you, saving you countless hours.

You just click a button, and the content you want appears automatically.

There are dozens of ways to use Optimo, so we can’t list them all here.

Therefore, we suggest you explore the tool yourself.

It breaks the barriers of traditional narrow AI and opens up incredible opportunities to improve your workflow.

Tips For Using Different Types Of Machine Learning For Marketing

Generally speaking, the more powerful the AI, the easier it is to use. However, many other AI types are still relevant and helpful, even if they are old. Ultimately, these tools save you time, helping you serve more clients and lower your prices.

• Use predictive analysis. AI is great at crunching data, meaning you can leverage these tools to analyze large quantities of information to identify patterns and trends and highlight new marketing opportunities. Help your clients get ahead of their rivals!
• Communicate in natural language. Today’s AIs, like Optimo, also understand instructions written in plain English. The more data you add, the higher the quality of the suggestions will be. Don’t speak robotically or in code. You don’t have to!
• Leverage chatbots. Lastly, using advanced chatbots could help automate the customer service side of your business by replying to regular queries and reducing response times. Bots might not be self-aware, but they can still save you money by triaging clients.

Supercharge Your Marketing With Your New Knowledge Of The Types Of AI

Now you understand the types of AI, it’s time to start using them in your marketing campaigns.

Optimo lets you automate tasks that used to take weeks or months, providing unlimited ideas and content for your business.

Machines aren’t superintelligent yet but are good enough to serve as virtual assistants.

The recent achievement of AIs that implement theory-of-mind represents an enormous step forwards for the industry.

Use it!