Briefing: Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term for "smart" technologies that are aware of and can learn from their environments, enabling them to subsequently take autonomous action. Robotic process automation, machine learning, natural language processing, and neural networks all incorporate AI into their operations. The most distinguishing aspect that separates AI from other general-purpose software is that it can enable machines to respond on their own to signals from the external world–signals that programmers do not directly control and therefore cannot anticipate. AI enables a variety of other emerging technologies as well. For example, it provides the "brain power" that allows robots to take on human-like characteristics, and it lends the analytical muscle that derives meaning from--and can act on--the flood of data generated by billions of interconnected devices in the internet of things (IoT).