At its most basic, artificial intelligence (AI) is any machine that can imitate intelligent behavior. For example, a search engine that can predict what you are going to search once you start typing and a music streaming service that can recommend songs for you to listen to are both examples of AI.
Artificial intelligence has been studied both to create new software and devices to improve the work of humans and to learn more about the way the human brain works.
AI can be divided into two categories: traditional AI and modern AI. Traditional AI uses rules that humans program into the computer. For example, many chatbot programs are created by programming what the software should say in response to specific user requests. In modern AI, computers are programmed to learn from the data they are given. For example, speech recognition systems learn from many examples of human speech. These machines are given datasets that they analyze to create models of real-world information. (Note that if they are given data that is biased or inaccurate, they will learn and continue this bias.)
Even this machine learning (ML) that is now used is only considered "Weak AI," since it accomplishes a specific task. General AI, that is, artificial intelligence that can do anything a human can, is so far only an idea and goal for researchers.
Some common examples of AI today include:
auto-correct features
typing suggestions
streaming service recommendations
voice assistants