What is artificial intelligence?

Computers are getting smarter. But... what does it mean and what are its limitations?

Artificial intelligence  (  AI)  is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines , especially computer programs, according to an article from the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University, United States, titled  What is artificial intelligence?

According to the publication, the development of  intelligent machines is related to the task of using computers to understand human intelligence and reproduce it . That is, AI is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.

According to the  Encyclopedia Britannica , AI projects are systems  endowed with intellectual processes characteristic of humans , such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize or learn from past experiences. A recent example is  ChatGPT , a language tool that simulates conversations and creates texts that are as close to human interaction as possible.

What is considered artificial intelligence?

The Stanford article defines intelligence as the computational part of the ability to achieve goals. Various types and degrees of intelligence occur in people and many animals.

In machines, AI engineers work to  understand the mechanisms of human intelligence , such as what types of processes and information are needed to perform a task and what types of problems the world presents to intelligence, the article says.

So, engineers work to make  computers  perform some of these mechanisms . “If the machine is programmed to perform a task that requires well-known intelligence mechanisms, it can deliver impressive performance ,” the academic paper reports.

Despite continuing advances in computer processing speed and memory capacity, Encyclopedia  Britannica acknowledges , there are still  no programs that can match human flexibility  in broader domains or in tasks that require a lot of everyday knowledge.

On the other hand, some programs have reached the performance levels of human and professional experts in carrying out certain tasks, which is why artificial intelligence is  found in applications as diverse as medical diagnoses, computer search engines, and voice or writing recognition. .