Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!linus!agate!ucbvax!dog.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!crash!ncr-sd!se-sd!jim
From: jim@se-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Jim Ruehlin, CFC User)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: What is your favorite definition of AI?
Message-ID: <4462@se-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Date: 5 Mar 91 15:53:33 GMT
References: <1991Mar4.192154.2209@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
Organization: NCR Corp., Systems Engineering - San Diego
Lines: 22

In <1991Mar4.192154.2209@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> leekin@kira.msu.edu (Kin-Wing Edwin Lee) writes:

>I have encountered many, many times with questions like what is
>AI, either from technical or nontechnical people.

>Any comments are welcomed and thanks in advance,

One of the best definitions was one I heard on the net:  AI is trying to
make computers act like they do in the movies.

I usually tell people that AI is the practice (or research) of making computers
do things that humans do well, or of creating new machines that do what
humans do well (e.g., recognizing characters).

Unlike many people, I don't think that computers need to learn to be considered
to have intelligence (although I think the ability to learn is a sign of
intelligence).

Anyway, that's what I tell people who ask me what AI is when I don't have 
much time to explain.

- Jim Ruehlin