Artificial Intelligence (AI) Definition/Meaning:
A discipline concerned with the building of
computer programs that perform tasks requiring intelligence when done by humans.
However, intelligent tasks for which a decision procedure is known (e.g.
inverting matrices) are generally excluded, whereas perceptual tasks (e.g.
seeing and hearing) are generally included. For this reason, AI is better
defined by indicating its range. Examples of tasks tackled within AI are: game
playing, inference, learning, natural-language understanding, plan formation,
speech understanding, theorem proving, and visual perception.
Perceptual tasks
have been found to involve a lot more computation than is apparent from
introspection. This computation is unconscious in humans, which has made it hard
to simulate. AI has had relatively more success at intellectual tasks (e.g. game
playing and theorem proving) than perceptual tasks. Sometimes these computer
programs are intended to simulate human behavior (see computational psychology).
Sometimes they are built for technological application (see computer-aided
instruction, expert systems, robotics). But in many cases the goal is just to
find any technique for doing some task, or to find a technique that does the
task better than hitherto.
Computational techniques and concepts that have been invented in Al include
list processing, interactive (multiaccess) computing, augmented transition
networks, means/ends analysis, production-rule systems, resolution, semantic
networks, and various line finders. The term machine intelligence is
synonymous with artificial intelligence, although it is sometimes used to
indicate only the technologically oriented aspects.
