What Is AI? Understanding The Real-World Impact Of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is today's most discussed and debated technology, generating widespread adulation and anxiety, and significant government and business interest and investments. But six years after DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated a Go champion, countless research papers showing AI's superior performance over humans in a variety of tasks, and numerous surveys reporting rapid adoption, what is the actual business impact of AI? "2021 was the year that AI went from an emerging technology to a mature technology... that has real-world impact, both positive and negative," declared the 2022 AI Index Report. The 5th installment of the index measures the growing impact of AI in a number of ways, including private investment in AI, the number of AI patents filed, and the number of bills related to AI that were passed into law in legislatures of 25 countries around the world. There is nothing in the report, however, about "real-world impact" as I would define it--measurably successful, long-lasting and significant deployments of AI. There is also no definition of "AI" in the report. Going back to the first installment of the AI Index report, published in 2017, still does not yield a definition of what the report is all about.