## 4 UAVs and Artificial Intelligence  
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to computer systems designed to perform tasks and exhibit behaviors typically requiring human intelligence. AI incorporates machine learning and deep learning techniques to develop algorithms that can improve through experience and data analysis rather than explicit programming. By mimicking abilities like reasoning, perception, prediction, and decision making, AI enables the automation and augmentation of complex cognitive tasks across diverse fields. From powering medical diagnoses to optimizing supply chains, AI is transforming how many human-centric problems are addressed. As AI research continues to advance, the technology is expected to become even more deeply integrated into society, enhancing services, operations, and quality of life in ways not otherwise possible. AI has already delivered innovations that make our living conditions more pleasant, efficient, and safe by efficiently handling complicated challenges beyond the scope of traditional computational approaches. AI is advancing rapidly, with daily innovations integrating AI into diverse tasks and systems. While previous AI applications focused on modest capabilities, such as image classification or auto-piloting functions, the researchers at present aim to develop more complex and general AI that matches or exceeds human-level proficiency. This involves tackling more cognitively demanding skills, ranging from strategic games, such as chess and AlphaGo, to solving abstract mathematical theorems. Through machine and deep learning advances, AI systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated at perceiving their environments, reasoning about optimal actions, and generalizing knowledge across domains. While current AI still falls short of human flexibility and contextual understanding, the field continues to perform breakthroughs in natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and other facets required for more broadly intelligent systems. As the research progresses, AI is expected to produce transformative technologies that complement and enhance human capabilities in revolutionary ways across education, business, transportation, healthcare, and many aspects of daily life. UAVs are increasingly improved with AI capabilities that mimic human-like cognition to perform more sophisticated operations. AI enables drones to exhibit advanced abilities, such as independent decision making, navigating unfamiliar environments, predicting outcomes, and coordinating with humans or other drones [180]. Rather than just following pre-programmed routines, AI algorithms allow drones to dynamically process sensor data, identify patterns, and determine optimal actions based on a situation. This facilitates more flexible autonomous flights, complex data analysis, and coordination on previously infeasible missions without human oversights. As drone hardware improves in tandem with AI advances, UAVs can take on evermore challenging tasks to assist people in applications ranging from infrastructure monitoring to emergency response. The integration of AI is transforming drones beyond basic flying machines into intelligent robotic systems capable of performing advanced roles across many industries. Machine learning, a prominent AI technology, was recently widely applied in UAVs to improve their wireless communication, routing, collision avoidance, and navigation [181]. Moreover, AI is transforming UAV capabilities by enabling advanced aerial data analysis, for example, deep learning algorithms can rapidly process the visual data captured by UAVs to identify objects, detect changes, and model environments [182]. This allows extracting meaningful information from UAV imagery at large scales. For instance, convolutional neural networks classify land cover using UAV orthomosaics with high accuracy [183]. Machine learning also assists in 3D reconstructions from UAV data through improved feature recognition and matching.