Word of the day · 30 April 2026
artificial intelligence
/ˌɑːtɪˈfɪʃəl ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒəns/
noun
Computer systems designed to perform tasks that usually need human intelligence, such as learning from data, recognizing patterns or generating language and images.
In a sentence
- The hospital tested artificial intelligence that flags unusual scans.
- Students asked how artificial intelligence writes a first draft.
- The company hired engineers for its artificial intelligence lab.
In an image
Origin
Named in the mid-1950s by researchers including John McCarthy: artificial (made by humans) plus intelligence (capacity to learn, reason or understand).
History
Early AI chased rules and symbols; later waves used statistics and neural networks trained on large datasets. Today the phrase covers chatbots, vision systems and recommendation engines as well as research ambitions. Hype and fear both drive searches. A grounded definition stresses designed systems and learned patterns, not movie minds.
Nearby words
machine learning · automation · algorithms
Machines trained to do jobs that once required a thinking person.