artificial intelligence
Americannoun
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the capacity of a computer, robot, programmed device, or software application to perform operations and tasks analogous to learning and decision making in humans, such as speech recognition or question answering. AI, A.I.
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a computer, robot, programmed device, or software application having this humanlike capacity: AI, A.I.
teaching human values to artificial intelligences.
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the branch of computer science involved with the design of computers, robots, programmed devices, and software applications having the capacity to imitate human intelligence and thought. AI, A.I.
noun
Closer Look
The goal of research on artificial intelligence is to understand the nature of thought and intelligent behavior and to design intelligent systems. A computer is not really intelligent; it just follows directions very quickly. At the same time, it is the speed and memory of modern computers that allows researchers to manage the huge quantities of data necessary to model human thought and behavior. An intelligent machine would be more flexible than a computer and would engage in the kind of “thinking” that people actually do. An example is vision. In theory, a network of sensors combined with systems for interpreting the data could produce the kind of pattern recognition that we take for granted as seeing and understanding what we see. In fact, developing software that can recognize subtle differences in objects (such as those we use to recognize human faces) is very difficult. The recognition of differences that we can perceive without deliberate effort would require massive amounts of data and elaborate guidelines to be recognized by an artificial intelligence system. According to the famous Turing Test, proposed in 1950 by British mathematician and logician Alan Turing, a machine would be considered intelligent if it could convince human observers that another human, rather than a machine, was answering their questions in conversation.
Etymology
Origin of artificial intelligence
First recorded in 1955–60
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hastily built to meet skyrocketing demand for computing power required by the global artificial intelligence race, these data centers are facing opposition across the United States.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Voice of legendary play-by-play announcer, re-created using artificial intelligence, will provide daily Olympic updates for NBCUniversal’s Peacock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Target said it is putting more resources into its artificial intelligence and user experience capabilities, the latest move by a major retailer to integrate more AI.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
More recently he created Prometheus, an artificial intelligence company which last month invested £330m in a British AI start-up.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Back in the days when the world’s digital network was called “the cloud,” people thought giving too much power to an artificial intelligence would be a very bad idea.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
