Logic and Artificial Intelligence (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Artificial Intelligence (which I'll refer to hereafter by its nickname, "AI") is the subfield of Computer Science devoted to developing programs that enable computers to display behavior that can (broadly) be characterized as intelligent.[1] Most research in AI is devoted to fairly narrow applications, such as planning or speech-to-speech translation in limited, well defined task domains. But substantial interest remains in the long-range goal of building generally intelligent, autonomous agents,[2] even if the goal of fully human-like intelligence is elusive and is seldom pursued explicitly and as such. Throughout its relatively short history, AI has been heavily influenced by logical ideas. AI has drawn on many research methodologies: the value and relative importance of logical formalisms is questioned by some leading practitioners, and has been debated in the literature from time to time.[3]