Artificial intelligence solutions

This section will aim to cover the following exam objective: describe the benefits and usage of Azure Machine Learning, Cognitive Services, and Azure Bot Service.

Before we look closer at the Microsoft AI platforms that are part of the exam objectives, we will create a knowledge foundation and baseline to build from. This also aims to build an understanding of the bigger picture of how the different AI techniques are positioned and interrelated for both technical and business personas.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer to imitate intelligent human behavior. AI allows computers to make predictions based on data, analyze images, take actions, recognize speech and text, and interact naturally.

The following are some important terminologies to understand regarding AI:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): This is the broad term given to describe the ability to mimic human intelligence by a computer; it can be applied to any app that reasons, senses, acts, and adapts behaviors or outcomes.
• Machine Learning (ML): This is the ability for computers to improve at tasks through experience (learning); this is known as training and it will produce a model that can be deployed and is said to be trained. ML is based on algorithms, whose output improves over time as they are fed more data to analyze and learn from; these are known as training datasets. It is a subset of AI.
• Deep Learning (DL): This is the ability for a computer to train itself to perform a task; this is based on multi-layered neural networks and they can achieve this self-learning from vast amounts of data. It is a subset of ML.

The following diagram illustrates AI, ML, and DL:

Figure 5.5 – Artificial intelligence inter-relations

No matter which approach we take to creating AI, there are ethical and legal considerations we must understand; there needs to be a governance framework that controls how AI is created and used. Microsoft has six AI principles: Fairness, Reliability and Safety, Privacy and Security, Inclusiveness, Transparency, and Accountability.

The core concept of AI is based on algorithms; this can be thought of as the magic sauce, as it were: an algorithm is a way to solve a problem or carry out dataset analysis using a sequence of calculations and rules.

For the exam objectives, we will look at the following three Microsoft AI platform services:

• Azure Machine Learning: A custom AI service
• Azure Cognitive Services: A pre-built AI service
• Azure Bot Service: A conversational AI service

The following diagram positions these platform services into their machine learning and deep learning subsets of artificial intelligence:

Figure 5.6 – Microsoft AI platform services

This section introduced AI. In the next few sections, we will look at the various Microsoft AI platform services we can use. First, we will look at the Azure Machine Learning service.