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Glossary term
The field of building computer systems that perform tasks normally associated with human intelligence, such as understanding language, recognizing images or making decisions.
AI is an umbrella term. It covers any technique that lets a computer do something we would normally expect to need human intelligence, from recognizing a face to planning a route or holding a conversation.
Today most headline AI is built with machine learning, where systems learn from data. Older approaches, such as hand-written rules and logic, still exist and are sometimes combined with learned models.
AI is now part of search, software, science and public policy, so knowing what the word does and does not cover helps you read claims about it critically.