AI by another name

LIKE big hairdos and dubious pop stars, the term "artificial intelligence" (AI) was big in the 1980s, vanished in the 1990s--and now seems to be attempting a comeback. The term re-entered public consciousness most dramatically with the release last year of "A.I.", a movie about a robot boy. But the term is also being rehabilitated within the computer industry. Researchers, executives and marketing people are using the expression without irony or inverted commas. And it is not always hype. The term is being applied, with some justification, to products that depend on technology that was originally cooked up by AI researchers.