What is Articifial Intelligence?
The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) is commonly used to describe the ability of computers or widly speaking machines to exhibit intelligent behavior. Before the invention of computers it was original coined an unique characteristic for humans. Today in many use cases it is getting harder to differentiate between a human and a machine interaction for example in only chats.
The basic concern of the field is developing algorithms and systems that can perform tasks that require human intelligence, such as perception, reasoning, learning, problem-solving, and natural language understanding.
A Definition of AI
One commonly cited definition of AI is from John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956:
The study of how to make computers do things at which, at the moment, people are better.
This definition highlights the central goal of AI, which is to create machines with the ability to perform tasks that were formerly performed by humans only due to the unique trait of intelligent behavior. Since McCarthy's time, the field of AI has grown and evolved. Former and current researchers have found different approaches and techniques to create intelligent machines. Examples of varieties are machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and more. We will descripe every approach and its basics on different pages in detail.
Artificial Intelligence as a field
Another modern definition of AI that is used in industry and academia is from Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig's textbook "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach," which states:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the study of how to make computers do things that would require intelligence if done by humans.
This definition emphasizes refers more to AI as a field of computer science and engineering. The focus lies on creating methods and systems that embodies intelligent behaviors. These systems use large amounts of data to identify pattern, make predictions and decisions based on the analysis. The goal is develop algorithms that produce results that are in par or even better than a human can archive.
Conclusion: AI is a kind of intelligence performed by machines. The goal is to perform human tasks and archive results that are as good or better than performed by a human.