broad artificial intelligence (broad AI)
What It Means
Broad AI refers to AI systems that can perform at expert level across multiple related areas of knowledge, rather than being limited to one narrow task. Unlike today's AI that excels at single functions like image recognition or language translation, broad AI can handle diverse but connected challenges within a business domain with human-level or better performance.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
Broad AI represents a significant leap in AI capability that could revolutionize entire business functions, requiring new governance frameworks and risk management approaches. Organizations need to prepare for AI systems that can make complex decisions across multiple interconnected processes, potentially replacing entire teams rather than just automating individual tasks. The compliance and ethical implications multiply when AI systems have broad decision-making authority across related business domains.
Real-World Example
A broad AI system for financial services that can simultaneously analyze market conditions, assess individual customer risk profiles, recommend personalized investment strategies, detect fraud patterns, and ensure regulatory compliance across all recommendations - essentially replacing an entire wealth management team's collective expertise with a single integrated system.
Common Confusion
People often confuse broad AI with artificial general intelligence (AGI), but broad AI is limited to related knowledge domains while AGI would have human-like intelligence across all possible areas. Broad AI is a stepping stone technology that we may see in the next decade, while AGI remains a theoretical future achievement.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare, broad AI would represent systems capable of performing multiple clinical tasks at expert level within a m...
Finance: In finance, broad AI would enable systems to simultaneously handle risk assessment, regulatory compliance, fraud detecti...
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Includes:
- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"Complex, computational, cognitive automation system capable of providing descriptive, predictive, prescriptive, and limited deductive analytics with relevance and accuracy exceeding human expertise in a broad, logically related set of knowledge domains."Source: IEEE_Guide_IPA
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