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Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) concerns making machines behave intelligently, i.e. to achieve goals requiring intelligence to solve them. It is better to accept the partial circularity of the above definition than to attempt to define intelligence. An attempt at a technical definition would not be anything but a prettier version of the common usage.

Almost always "machine" in the above means computer. Other kinds of machines have been proposed but usually are simulated on computers for research purposes.

The ultimate goal of AI is to achieve human-level intelligence, but this doesn't seem to be close. Therefore, research projects usually concentrate on particular aspects of intelligence, and applications usually involve only a few of the intellectual mechanisms that have been studied.

  1. Mathematical logic is a subject of AI research, i.e. programs are written to prove theorems in mathematical logic.
  2. Mathematical logic is a tool of AI research. Facts are represented by formulas of logic.