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.
To do this, they used an artificial intelligence system called AlphaFold2 to predict the three-dimensional shapes of the proteins.
From Science Daily
Dozens of world leaders and ministers are expected to deliver on Friday a shared view of how to handle artificial intelligence, wrapping up a five-day summit focused on the technology.
From Barron's
Engineers are racing to equip drones with artificial intelligence to improve their performance.
From Barron's
Fledgling Indian artificial intelligence companies showcased homegrown technologies this week at a major summit in New Delhi, underpinning big dreams of becoming a global AI power.
From Barron's
San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly said that monetary policy is “in a good place” and that officials at the central bank have been assessing what effect artificial intelligence will have on the economy.
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.