All you ever wanted to know about Artificial Intelligence

Opinion: just what exactly is Artificial Intelligence and why is it so important? The first official use of the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) was in the proposal for the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence. That six week workshop marked the birth of the field of study of AI and the organisers - John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester and Claude Shannon - and conference attendees led the way for many years. At the beginning, the focus was on developing computational systems that had the capacity for the human abilities that are traditionally associated with intelligence. These included language use, mathematics and self-improvement on tasks through experience (learning) and planning (for example in games such as chess).