What Is Artificial Intelligence?

A clear definition of AI, what makes a system intelligent, and what the term does not mean.

In this lesson

Lesson goals

Build a practical definition of artificial intelligence.
Distinguish an AI system from conventional software.
Recognize AI as an umbrella containing multiple technologies.

A practical definition

Artificial intelligence is a field of computer science concerned with systems that perform tasks commonly requiring human abilities, such as recognizing patterns, understanding language, predicting outcomes, planning, and supporting decisions. This does not mean the machine is conscious or thinks like a person; it uses models and algorithms to transform inputs into useful outputs.

When do we call a system intelligent?

An AI system can handle cases for which no separate rule was written, adapt patterns learned from examples, and compare likely outcomes. A spam filter, for example, does not memorize every bad message. It learns recurring features and applies them to messages it has not seen before.

A familiar example

Face recognition, product recommendations, and document summarization are all AI applications, even though their data, models, and goals differ.

Check your understanding

Name two AI applications and identify the input and expected output of each.
Is every automated system an AI system? Explain.