Artificial intelligence (AI) | Definition, Examples, Types, Applications, Companies, & Facts (2024)

verifiedCite

While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.

Select Citation Style

Feedback

Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

Britannica Websites

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)

printPrint

Please select which sections you would like to print:

verifiedCite

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?

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.

Recent News

Sep. 12, 2024, 4:47 PM ET (AP)

Tech companies commit to fighting harmful AI sexual imagery by curbing nudity from datasets

Sep. 12, 2024, 9:54 AM ET (AP)

Most Americans don't trust AI-powered election information: AP-NORC/USAFacts survey

Sep. 12, 2024, 5:44 AM ET (AP)

Google's AI model faces European Union scrutiny from privacy watchdog

Sep. 9, 2024, 8:54 PM ET (AP)

Apple embraces the AI craze with its newly unleashed iPhone 16 lineup

Sep. 5, 2024, 12:24 PM ET (AP)

Correction: AI-Safety-Math story

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?

AI & your money

Artificial intelligence is changing how we interact online, how we manage our finances, and even how we work. Learn more with Britannica Money.

Using AI for money management
How AI is changing work
Ethical questions and AI
AI and regulation
Investing in AI stocks

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 Quiz

Psychologists 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.

Are you a student?

Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.

(Read Yuval Noah Harari’s Britannica essay on the future of “Nonconscious Man.”)