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- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - The rise of artificial intelligence in healthcare applications
- Lifewire - What is artificial intelligence?
- Harvard University - Science in the News - The History of Artificial Intelligence
- Computer History Museum - AI and Robotics
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Artificial Intelligence
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- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - The rise of artificial intelligence in healthcare applications
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- Harvard University - Science in the News - The History of Artificial Intelligence
- Computer History Museum - AI and Robotics
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Artificial Intelligence
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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- artificial intelligence - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
- artificial intelligence (AI) - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
Also known as: AI
Written by
B.J. Copeland
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: •Article History
artificial intelligence
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- Key People:
- Geoffrey Hinton
- Marvin Minsky
- Edward Albert Feigenbaum
- Allen Newell
- John McCarthy
- Related Topics:
- history of artificial intelligence (AI)
- computational aesthetics
- prompt engineering
- three laws of robotics
- generative AI
See all related content →
Top Questions
What is artificial intelligence?
What is artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence is the ability of a computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks that are commonly associated with theintellectualprocesses characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason. Although there are as yet no AIs that match full human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge, some AIs perform specific tasks as well as humans. Learn more.
Are artificial intelligence and machine learning the same?
Are artificial intelligence and machine learning the same?
No, artificial intelligence and machine learning are not the same, but they are closely related. Machine learning is the method to train a computer to learn from its inputs but without explicit programming for every circ*mstance. Machine learning helps a computer to achieve artificial intelligence.
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artificial intelligence (AI), the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience. Since their development in the 1940s, digital computers have been programmed to carry out very complex tasks—such as discovering proofs for mathematical theorems or playing chess—with great proficiency. Despite continuing advances in computer processing speed and memory capacity, there are as yet no programs that can match full human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge. On the other hand, some programs have attained the performance levels of human experts and professionals in executing certain specific tasks, so that artificial intelligence in this limited sense is found in applications as diverse as medical diagnosis, computer search engines, voice or handwriting recognition, and chatbots.
What is intelligence?
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All but the simplest human behavior is ascribed to intelligence, while even the most complicated insect behavior is usually not taken as an indication of intelligence. What is the difference? Consider the behavior of the digger wasp, Sphex ichneumoneus. When the female wasp returns to her burrow with food, she first deposits it on the threshold, checks for intruders inside her burrow, and only then, if the coast is clear, carries her food inside. The real nature of the wasp’s instinctual behavior is revealed if the food is moved a few inches away from the entrance to her burrow while she is inside: on emerging, she will repeat the whole procedure as often as the food is displaced. Intelligence—conspicuously absent in the case of the wasp—must include the ability to adapt to new circ*mstances.
(Read Ray Kurzweil’s Britannica essay on the future of “Nonbiological Man.”)
Britannica QuizComputers and Technology QuizPsychologists generally characterize human intelligence not by just one trait but by the combination of many diverse abilities. Research in AI has focused chiefly on the following components of intelligence: learning, reasoning, problem solving, perception, and using language.
Learning
There are a number of different forms of learning as applied to artificial intelligence. The simplest is learning by trial and error. For example, a simple computer program for solving mate-in-one chess problems might try moves at random until mate is found. The program might then store the solution with the position so that, the next time the computer encountered the same position, it would recall the solution. This simple memorizing of individual items and procedures—known as rote learning—is relatively easy to implement on a computer. More challenging is the problem of implementing what is called generalization. Generalization involves applying past experience to analogous new situations. For example, a program that learns the past tense of regular English verbs by rote will not be able to produce the past tense of a word such as jump unless the program was previously presented with jumped, whereas a program that is able to generalize can learn the “add -ed” rule for regular verbs ending in a consonant and so form the past tense of jump on the basis of experience with similar verbs.
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(Read Yuval Noah Harari’s Britannica essay on the future of “Nonconscious Man.”)