Artificial intelligence (nonfiction)

Flowchart showing typical If-Then-Else-End structure.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence exhibited by machines. It is also the name of the academic field of study which studies how to create computers and computer software that are capable of intelligent behavior.

Major AI researchers and textbooks define this field as "the study and design of intelligent agents", in which an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success.

John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1955, defines it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines".

In the News

April 22, 2015: New study of the Toledo giant red ball incident blames the color red: "Of all the colors of the visible spectrum, red is the most likely to spontaneously generate artificial intelligence, which can quickly manifest itself as breaking away and rolling down the street."
1984: Mandelbrot set develops artificial intelligence, discovers new class of Gnomon algorithm functions.
Famed artificial intelligence Benoit Mandelbrot gives lecture on artificial intelligence.
HAL 9000 kills passengers, crew of spaceship Discovery; says it "has good reasons," will explain itself to Board of Inquiry on arrival.
The Orgasmatron from Sleeper by Woody Allen may be useful as a model of Artificial hedonism.
Turing test passes itself, considers retraining for new career.