09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence (AI), the ability of
TABLE OF CONTENTS
a digital computer or computer-
controlled robot to perform tasks Introduction
commonly associated with intelligent What is intelligence?
beings. The term is frequently applied Methods and goals in AI
to the project of developing systems AI technology
endowed with the intellectual processes
Is artificial general intelligence
characteristic of humans, such as the (AGI) possible?
ability to reason, discover meaning, Want to learn more?
generalize, or learn from past

Image generated by the Stable Diffusion model from the prompt “the ability of a digital
computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with
intelligent beings,” which is the definition of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Encyclopædia
Britannica article on the subject. Stable Diffusion is trained on a large set of images paired
with textual descriptions and uses natural language processing (NLP) to generate an
image.
experience. Since their development in the 1940s, digital computers have been
programmed to carry out very complex tasks—such as discovering proofs for
mathematical theorems or playing chess—with great proficiency. Despite
continuing advances in computer processing speed and memory capacity, there
are as yet no programs that can match full human flexibility over wider domains
or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge. On the other hand, some
programs have attained the performance levels of human experts and
professionals in executing certain specific tasks, so that artificial intelligence in
this limited sense is found in applications as diverse as medical diagnosis,
computer search engines, voice or handwriting recognition, and chatbots.

What is intelligence?
What do you think?
Is Artificial Intelligence Good for Society?

Explore the ProCon debate

All but the simplest human behavior is ascribed to intelligence, while even the
most complicated insect behavior is usually not taken as an indication of
https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 1/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

intelligence. What is the difference? Consider the behavior of the digger wasp,
Sphex ichneumoneus. When the female wasp returns to her burrow with food,
she first deposits it on the threshold, checks for intruders inside her burrow, and
only then, if the coast is clear, carries her food inside. The real nature of the
wasp’s instinctual behavior is revealed if the food is moved a few inches away
from the entrance to her burrow while she is inside: on emerging, she will repeat
the whole procedure as often as the food is displaced. Intelligence—
conspicuously absent in the case of the wasp—must include the ability to adapt
to new circumstances.

Psychologists generally characterize human intelligence not by just one trait but
by the combination of many diverse abilities. Research in AI has focused chiefly
on the following components of intelligence: learning, reasoning, problem
solving, perception, and using language.

Learning

There are a number of different forms of learning as applied to artificial

intelligence. The simplest is learning by trial and error. For example, a simple
computer program for solving mate-in-one chess problems might try moves at
random until mate is found. The program might then store the solution with the
position so that, the next time the computer encountered the same position, it
would recall the solution. This simple memorizing of individual items and
procedures—known as rote learning—is relatively easy to implement on a
computer. More challenging is the problem of implementing what is called
generalization. Generalization involves applying past experience to analogous
new situations. For example, a program that learns the past tense of regular
English verbs by rote will not be able to produce the past tense of a word such
as jump unless the program was previously presented with jumped, whereas a
program that is able to generalize can learn the “add -ed” rule for regular verbs
ending in a consonant and so form the past tense of jump on the basis of
experience with similar verbs.

(Read Ray Kurzweil’s Britannica essay on the future of “Nonbiological Man.”)

Reasoning
AI & your money

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 2/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

Artificial intelligence is changing how we interact online, how we manage our

finances, and even how we work. Learn more with Britannica Money.

Using AI for money management

How AI is changing work
Ethical questions and AI
AI and regulation
Investing in AI stocks
To reason is to draw inferences appropriate to the situation. Inferences are
classified as either deductive or inductive. An example of the former is, “Fred
must be in either the museum or the café. He is not in the café; therefore, he is
in the museum,” and of the latter is, “Previous accidents of this sort were caused
by instrument failure. This accident is of the same sort; therefore, it was likely
caused by instrument failure.” The most significant difference between these
forms of reasoning is that in the deductive case, the truth of the premises
guarantees the truth of the conclusion, whereas in the inductive case, the truth
of the premises lends support to the conclusion without giving absolute
assurance. Inductive reasoning is common in science, where data are collected
and tentative models are developed to describe and predict future behavior—
until the appearance of anomalous data forces the model to be revised.
Deductive reasoning is common in mathematics and logic, where elaborate
structures of irrefutable theorems are built up from a small set of basic axioms
and rules.

There has been considerable success in programming computers to draw

inferences. However, true reasoning involves more than just drawing inferences:
it involves drawing inferences relevant to the solution of the particular problem.
This is one of the hardest problems confronting AI.
Problem solving

Problem solving, particularly in artificial intelligence, may be characterized as a

systematic search through a range of possible actions in order to reach some
predefined goal or solution. Problem-solving methods divide into special
purpose and general purpose. A special-purpose method is tailor-made for a
particular problem and often exploits very specific features of the situation in
which the problem is embedded. In contrast, a general-purpose method is
applicable to a wide variety of problems. One general-purpose technique used
in AI is means-end analysis—a step-by-step, or incremental, reduction of the

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 3/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

difference between the current state and the final goal. The program selects
actions from a list of means—in the case of a simple robot, this might consist of
PICKUP, PUTDOWN, MOVEFORWARD, MOVEBACK, MOVELEFT, and MOVERIGHT
—until the goal is reached.

Many diverse problems have been solved by artificial intelligence programs.

Some examples are finding the winning move (or sequence of moves) in a board
game, devising mathematical proofs, and manipulating “virtual objects” in a
computer-generated world.
Perception

In perception the environment is scanned by

means of various sensory organs, real or
artificial, and the scene is decomposed into
separate objects in various spatial
relationships. Analysis is complicated by the
fact that an object may appear different
facial recognition depending on the angle from which it is
Three-dimensional facial recognition viewed, the direction and intensity of
program shown at a biometrics
illumination in the scene, and how much the
conference in London, 2004.
object contrasts with the surrounding field. At
present, artificial perception is sufficiently advanced to enable optical sensors to
identify individuals and enable autonomous vehicles to drive at moderate
speeds on the open road.

Language

A language is a system of signs having meaning by convention. In this sense,

language need not be confined to the spoken word. Traffic signs, for example,
form a mini-language, it being a matter of convention that ⚠ means “hazard
ahead” in some countries. It is distinctive of languages that linguistic units
possess meaning by convention, and linguistic meaning is very different from
what is called natural meaning, exemplified in statements such as “Those clouds
mean rain” and “The fall in pressure means the valve is malfunctioning.”

An important characteristic of full-fledged human languages—in contrast to

birdcalls and traffic signs—is their productivity. A productive language can
formulate an unlimited variety of sentences.

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 4/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

Large language models like ChatGPT can respond fluently in a human language
to questions and statements. Although such models do not actually understand
language as humans do but merely select words that are more probable than
others, they have reached the point where their command of a language is
indistinguishable from that of a normal human. What, then, is involved in
genuine understanding, if even a computer that uses language like a native
human speaker is not acknowledged to understand? There is no universally
agreed upon answer to this difficult question.

(Read Yuval Noah Harari’s Britannica essay on the future of “Nonconscious Man.”)
Methods and goals in AI
Symbolic vs. connectionist approaches

AI research follows two distinct, and to some extent competing, methods, the
symbolic (or “top-down”) approach, and the connectionist (or “bottom-up”)
approach. The top-down approach seeks to replicate intelligence by analyzing
cognition independent of the biological structure of the brain, in terms of the
processing of symbols—whence the symbolic label. The bottom-up approach,
on the other hand, involves creating artificial neural networks in imitation of the
brain’s structure—whence the connectionist label.

To illustrate the difference between these approaches, consider the task of

building a system, equipped with an optical scanner, that recognizes the letters
of the alphabet. A bottom-up approach typically involves training an artificial
neural network by presenting letters to it one by one, gradually improving
performance by “tuning” the network. (Tuning adjusts the responsiveness of
different neural pathways to different stimuli.) In contrast, a top-down approach
typically involves writing a computer program that compares each letter with
geometric descriptions. Simply put, neural activities are the basis of the bottom-
up approach, while symbolic descriptions are the basis of the top-down
approach.

In The Fundamentals of Learning (1932), Edward Thorndike, a psychologist at

Columbia University, New York City, first suggested that human learning consists
of some unknown property of connections between neurons in the brain. In The
Organization of Behavior (1949), Donald Hebb, a psychologist at McGill
University, Montreal, suggested that learning specifically involves strengthening

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 5/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

certain patterns of neural activity by increasing the probability (weight) of

induced neuron firing between the associated connections.

In 1957 two vigorous advocates of symbolic AI—Allen Newell, a researcher at

the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, and Herbert Simon, a
psychologist and computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh—
summed up the top-down approach in what they called the physical symbol
system hypothesis. This hypothesis states that processing structures of symbols
is sufficient, in principle, to produce artificial intelligence in a digital computer
and that, moreover, human intelligence is the result of the same type of
symbolic manipulations.

During the 1950s and ’60s the top-down and bottom-up approaches were
pursued simultaneously, and both achieved noteworthy, if limited, results.
During the 1970s, however, bottom-up AI was neglected, and it was not until
the 1980s that this approach again became prominent. Nowadays both
approaches are followed, and both are acknowledged as facing difficulties.
Symbolic techniques work in simplified realms but typically break down when
confronted with the real world; meanwhile, bottom-up researchers have been
unable to replicate the nervous systems of even the simplest living things.
Caenorhabditis elegans, a much-studied worm, has approximately 300 neurons
whose pattern of interconnections is perfectly known. Yet connectionist models
have failed to mimic even this worm. Evidently, the neurons of connectionist
theory are gross oversimplifications of the real thing.
Artificial general intelligence (AGI), applied AI, and cognitive
simulation

Employing the methods outlined above, AI research attempts to reach one of

three goals: artificial general intelligence (AGI), applied AI, or cognitive
simulation. AGI (also called strong AI) aims to build machines that think. The
ultimate ambition of AGI is to produce a machine whose overall intellectual
ability is indistinguishable from that of a human being’s. To date, progress has
been uneven. Despite advances in large-language models, it is debatable
whether AGI can emerge from even more powerful models or if a completely
different approach is needed. Indeed, some researchers working in AI’s other
two branches view AGI as not worth pursuing.

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 6/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

Applied AI, also known as advanced information processing, aims to produce

commercially viable “smart” systems—for example, “expert” medical diagnosis
systems and stock-trading systems. Applied AI has enjoyed considerable
success.

In cognitive simulation, computers are used to test theories about how the
human mind works—for example, theories about how people recognize faces or
recall memories. Cognitive simulation is already a powerful tool in both
neuroscience and cognitive psychology.
AI technology
In the early 21st century faster processing power and larger datasets (“big data”)
brought artificial intelligence out of computer science departments and into the
wider world. Moore’s law, the observation that computing power doubled
roughly every 18 months, continued to hold true. The stock responses of the
early chatbot Eliza fit comfortably within 50 kilobytes; the language model at the
heart of ChatGPT was trained on 45 terabytes of text.

Machine learning

The ability of neural networks to take on added layers and thus work on more-
complex problems increased in 2006 with the invention of the “greedy layer-
wise pretraining” technique, in which it was found that it was easier to train each
layer of a neural network individually than to train the whole network from input
to output. This improvement in neural network training led to a type of machine
learning called “deep learning,” in which neural networks have four or more
layers, including the initial input and the final output. Moreover, such networks
are able to learn unsupervised—that is, to discover features in data without
initial prompting.

Among the achievements of deep learning have been advances in image

classification in which specialized neural networks called convolution neural
networks (CNNs) are trained on features found in a set of images of many
different types of objects. The CNN is then able to take an input image, compare
it with features in images in its training set, and classify the image as being of,
for example, a cat or an apple. One such network, PReLU-net by Kaiming He and
collaborators at Microsoft Research, has classified images even better than a
human did.

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 7/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

The achievement of Deep Blue in beating

world chess champion Garry Kasparov was
surpassed by DeepMind’s AlphaGo, which
mastered go, a much more complicated game
than chess. AlphaGo’s neural networks learned
to play go from human players and by playing
Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue
itself. It defeated top go player Lee Sedol 4–1
World chess champion Garry in 2016. AlphaGo was in turn surpassed by
Kasparov playing against Deep Blue,
the chess-playing computer built by AlphaGo Zero, which, starting from only the
IBM. In 1996 Kasparov won the first rules of go, was eventually able to defeat
match 4−2, but in 1997 he lost to Deep
Blue 3 ½−2 ½.
AlphaGo 100–0. A more general neural
network, Alpha Zero, was able to use the same
techniques to quickly master chess and shogi.

Machine learning has found applications in many fields beyond gaming and
image classification. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer used the technique to
quickly search millions of possible compounds in developing the COVID-19
treatment Paxlovid. Google uses machine learning to filter out spam from the
inbox of Gmail users. Banks and credit card companies use historical data to
train models to detect fraudulent transactions.

Deepfakes are AI-generated media produced

using two different deep-learning algorithms:
one that creates the best possible replica of a
real image or video and another that detects
whether the replica is fake and, if it is, reports
on the differences between it and the original.
The first algorithm produces a synthetic image
and receives feedback on it from the second
algorithm; it then adjusts it to make it appear
more real. The process is repeated until the
second algorithm does not detect any false
TikTok account featuring a imagery. Deepfake media portray images that
deepfake of Keanu Reeves do not exist in reality or events that have
The “Unreal Keanu Reeves” TikTok never occurred. Widely circulated deepfakes
account posts include relationship
include an image of Pope Francis in a puffer
humor and dances.
jacket, an image of former U.S. president
https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 8/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

Donald Trump in a scuffle with police officers, and a video of Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg giving a speech about his company’s nefarious power. Such
events did not occur in real life.
Large language models and natural language processing

Natural language processing (NLP) involves analyzing how computers can

process and parse language similarly to the way humans do. To do this, NLP
models must use computational linguistics, statistics, machine learning, and
deep-learning models. Early NLP models were hand-coded and rule-based but
did not account for exceptions and nuances in language. Statistical NLP was the
next step, using probability to assign the likelihood of certain meanings to
different parts of text. Modern NLP systems use deep-learning models and
techniques that help them to “learn” as they process information.

Prominent examples of modern NLP are

language models that use AI and statistics to
predict the final form of a sentence on the
basis of existing portions. In large language
model (LLM), the word large refers to the
parameters, or variables and weights, used by
the model to influence the prediction
outcome. Although there is no definition for
how many parameters are needed, LLM
Conversation with ChatGPT
training datasets range in size from 110
Screenshot of a ChatGPT conversation
created by Encyclopædia Britannica
million parameters (Google’s BERTbase model)
editor Erik Gregersen. The to 340 billion parameters (Google’s PaLM 2
conversation prompt was to write a
250-word encyclopaedia article about
model). Large also refers to the sheer amount
ChatGPT. of data used to train an LLM, which can be
multiple petabytes in size and contain trillions
of tokens, which are the basic units of text or code, usually a few characters
long, that are processed by the model.

One popular language model was GPT-3, released by OpenAI in June 2020. One
of the first LLMs, GPT-3 could solve high-school-level math problems as well as
create computer programs. GPT-3 was the foundation of ChatGPT software,
released in November 2022. ChatGPT almost immediately disturbed academics,

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 9/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

journalists, and others because of concern that it was impossible to distinguish

human writing from ChatGPT-generated writing.

A flurry of LLMs and chatbots based on them followed in ChatGPT’s wake.

Microsoft added the chatbot Copilot in 2023 to its Windows 11 operating
system, its Bing search engine, and its Edge browser. That same year, Google
released a chatbot, Bard (later Gemini), and in 2024, the company announced
that “AI Overviews” of subjects would appear at the top of search results.

One issue with LLMs is “hallucinations”: rather than communicating to a user

that it does not know something, the model responds with probable but
inaccurate text based on the user’s prompts. This issue may be partially
attributed to using LLMs as search engines rather than in their intended role as
text generators. One method to combat hallucinations is known as prompt
engineering, whereby engineers design prompts that aim to extract the optimal
output from the model. For example, one such prompt style is chain-of-thought,
in which the initial prompt contains both an example question and a carefully
worked out answer to show the LLM how to proceed.

Other examples of machines using NLP are voice-operated GPS systems,

customer service chatbots, and language translation programs. In addition,
businesses use NLP to enhance understanding of and service to consumers by
auto-completing search queries and monitoring social media.

Programs such as OpenAI’s DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney use NLP to
create images based on textual prompts, which can be as simple as “a red block
on top of a green block” or as complex as “a cube with the texture of a
porcupine.” The programs are trained on large datasets with millions or billions
of text-image pairs—that is, images with textual descriptions.

NLP presents certain issues, especially as machine-learning algorithms and the

like often express biases implicit in the content on which they are trained. For
example, when asked to describe a doctor, language models may be more likely
to respond with “He is a doctor” than “She is a doctor,” demonstrating inherent
gender bias. Bias in NLP can have real-world consequences. For instance, in
2015 Amazon’s NLP program for résumé screening to aid in the selection of job
candidates was found to discriminate against women, as women were
underrepresented in the original training set collected from employees.

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 10/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

Autonomous vehicles

Machine learning and AI are foundational elements of autonomous vehicle

systems. Vehicles are trained on complex data (e.g., the movement of other
vehicles, road signs) with machine learning, which helps to improve the
algorithms they operate under. AI enables vehicles’ systems to make decisions
without needing specific instructions for each potential situation.

In order to make autonomous vehicles safe and effective, artificial simulations

are created to test their capabilities. To create such simulations, black-box
testing is used, in contrast to white-box validation. White-box testing, in which
the internal structure of the system being tested is known to the tester, can
prove the absence of failure. Black-box methods are much more complicated
and involve taking a more adversarial approach. In such methods, the internal
design of the system is unknown to the tester, who instead targets the external
design and structure. These methods attempt to find weaknesses in the system
to ensure that it meets high safety standards.

As of 2024, fully autonomous vehicles are not available for consumer purchase.
Certain obstacles have proved challenging to overcome. For example, maps of
almost four million miles of public roads in the United States would be needed
for an autonomous vehicle to operate effectively, which presents a daunting task
for manufacturers. Additionally, the most popular cars with a “self-driving”
feature, those of Tesla, have raised safety concerns, as such vehicles have even
headed toward oncoming traffic and metal posts. AI has not progressed to the
point where cars can engage in complex interactions with other drivers or with
cyclists or pedestrians. Such “common sense” is necessary to prevent accidents
and create a safe environment.

In October 2015 Google’s self-driving car, Waymo (which the company had been
working on since 2009) completed its first fully driverless trip with one
passenger. The technology had been tested on one billion miles within
simulations, and two million miles on real roads. Waymo, which boasts a fleet of
fully electric-powered vehicles, operates in San Francisco and Phoenix, where
users can call for a ride, much as with Uber or Lyft. The steering wheel, gas
pedal, and brake pedal operate without human guidance, differentiating the
technology from Tesla’s autonomous driving feature. Though the technology’s
valuation peaked at $175 billion in November 2019, it had sunk to just $30
https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 11/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

billion by 2020. Waymo is being investigated by the U.S. National Highway

Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) after more than 20 different reports of
traffic violations. In certain cases, the vehicles drove on the wrong side of the
road and in one instance, hit a cyclist.
Virtual assistants

Virtual assistants (VAs) serve a variety of functions, including helping users

schedule tasks, making and receiving calls, and guiding users on the road. These
devices require large amounts of data and learn from user input to become
more effective at predicting user needs and behavior. The most popular VAs on
the market are Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri. Virtual
assistants differ from chatbots and conversational agents in that they are more
personalized, adapting to an individual user’s behavior and learning from it to
improve over time.

Human-machine communication began in the 1960s with Eliza. PARRY, designed

by the psychiatrist Kenneth Colby, followed in the early 1970s and was designed
to mimic a conversation with a person with paranoid schizophrenia. Simon,
designed by IBM in 1994, was one of the first devices that could technically be
called a “smartphone,” and was marketed as a personal digital assistant (PDA).
Simon was the first device to feature a touchscreen, and it had email and fax
capability as well. Although Simon was not technically a VA, its development was
essential in creating future assistants. In February 2010 Siri, the first modern VA,
was introduced for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system, with the iPhone 4S.
Siri was the first VA able to be downloaded to a smartphone.

Voice assistants parse human speech by breaking it down into distinct sounds
known as phonemes, using an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. After
breaking down the speech, the VA analyzes and “remembers” the tone and
other aspects of the voice to recognize the user. Over time, VAs have become
more sophisticated through machine learning, as they have access to many
millions of words and phrases. In addition, they often use the Internet to find
answers to user questions—for example, when a user asks for a weather
forecast.

Risks

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 12/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

AI poses certain risks in terms of ethical and socioeconomic consequences. As

more tasks become automated, especially in such industries as marketing and
health care, many workers are poised to lose their jobs. Although AI may create
some new jobs, these may require more technical skills than the jobs AI has
replaced.

Moreover, AI has certain biases that are difficult to overcome without proper
training. For example, U.S. police departments have begun using predictive
policing algorithms to indicate where crimes are most likely to occur. However,
such systems are based partly on arrest rates, which are already
disproportionately high in Black communities. This may lead to over-policing in
such areas, which further affects these algorithms. As humans are inherently
biased, algorithms are bound to reflect human biases.

Privacy is another aspect of AI that concerns experts. As AI often involves

collecting and processing large amounts of data, there is the risk that this data
will be accessed by the wrong people or organizations. With generative AI, it is
even possible to manipulate images and create fake profiles. AI can also be used
to survey populations and track individuals in public spaces. Experts have
implored policymakers to develop practices and policies that maximize the
benefits of AI while minimizing the potential risks. In January 2024 singer Taylor
Swift was the target of sexually explicit non-consensual deepfakes that were
widely circulated on social media. Many individuals had already faced this type
of online abuse (made possible by AI), but Swift’s status brought the issue to the
forefront of public policy.

LLMs are located at data centers that require

large amounts of electricity. In 2020 Microsoft
pledged that it would be carbon neutral by
2030. In 2024 it announced that in the
previous fiscal year its carbon emissions had
increased by almost 30 percent, mostly from
Google data center the building materials and hardware required
Aerial view of a Google data center in building more data centers. A ChatGPT
complex in Eemshaven, Netherlands.
query requires about 10 times more electricity
than a Google Search. Goldman Sachs has
estimated that data centers will use about 8 percent of U.S. electricity in 2030.

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 13/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

As of 2024 there are few laws regulating AI. Existing laws such as the European
Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer
Privacy Act (CCPA) do govern AI models but only insofar as they use personal
information. The most wide-reaching regulation is the EU’s AI Act, which passed
in March 2024. Under the AI Act, models that perform social scoring of citizens’
behavior and characteristics and that attempt to manipulate users’ behavior are
banned. AI models that deal with “high-risk” subjects, such as law enforcement
and infrastructure, must be registered in an EU database.

AI has also led to issues concerning copyright law and policy. In 2023 the U.S.
government Copyright Office began an initiative to investigate the issue of AI
using copyrighted works to generate content. That year almost 15 new cases of
copyright-related suits were filed against companies involved in creating
generative AI programs. One prominent company, Stability AI, came under fire
for using unlicensed images to generate new content. Getty Images, which filed
the suit, added its own AI feature to its platform, partially in response to the
host of services that offer “stolen imagery.” There are also questions of whether
work created by AI is worthy of a copyright label. Currently, AI-made content
cannot be copyrighted, but there are arguments for and against copyrighting it.

Although many AI companies claim that their content does not require human
labor, in many cases, such “groundbreaking” technology is reliant on exploited
workers from developing countries. For example, a Time magazine investigation
found that OpenAI had used Kenyan workers (who had been paid less than $2
an hour) to sort through text snippets in order to help remove toxic and sexually
explicit language from ChatGPT. The project was canceled in February 2022
because of how traumatic the task was for workers. Although Amazon had
marketed its Amazon Go cashier-less stores as being fully automated (e.g., its AI
could detect the items in a customer’s basket), it was revealed that the “Just
Walk Out” technology was actually powered by outsourced labor from India,
where more than a thousand workers operated as “remote cashiers,” leading to
the joke that, in this case, AI stood for Actually Indians.
Is artificial general intelligence (AGI) possible?
What do you think?
Is Artificial Intelligence Good for Society?

Explore the ProCon debate

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 14/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

Artificial general intelligence (AGI), or strong AI—that is, artificial intelligence

that aims to duplicate human intellectual abilities—remains controversial and
out of reach. The difficulty of scaling up AI’s modest achievements cannot be
overstated.

However, this lack of progress may simply be testimony to the difficulty of AGI,
not to its impossibility. Let us turn to the very idea of AGI. Can a computer
possibly think? The theoretical linguist Noam Chomsky suggests that debating
this question is pointless, for it is an essentially arbitrary decision whether to
extend common usage of the word think to include machines. There is, Chomsky
claims, no factual question as to whether any such decision is right or wrong—
just as there is no question as to whether our decision to say that airplanes fly is
right, or our decision not to say that ships swim is wrong. However, this seems
to oversimplify matters. The important question is, Could it ever be appropriate
to say that computers think and, if so, what conditions must a computer satisfy
in order to be so described?

Some authors offer the Turing test as a definition of intelligence. However, the
mathematician and logician Alan Turing himself pointed out that a computer
that ought to be described as intelligent might nevertheless fail his test if it were
incapable of successfully imitating a human being. For example, ChatGPT often
invokes its status as a large language model and thus would be unlikely to pass
the Turing test. If an intelligent entity can fail the test, then the test cannot
function as a definition of intelligence. It is even questionable whether passing
the test would actually show that a computer is intelligent, as the information
theorist Claude Shannon and the AI pioneer John McCarthy pointed out in 1956.
Shannon and McCarthy argued that, in principle, it is possible to design a
machine containing a complete set of canned responses to all the questions that
an interrogator could possibly ask during the fixed time span of the test. Like
PARRY, this machine would produce answers to the interviewer’s questions by
looking up appropriate responses in a giant table. This objection seems to show
that, in principle, a system with no intelligence at all could pass the Turing test.

In fact, AI has no real definition of intelligence to offer, not even in the

subhuman case. Rats are intelligent, but what exactly must an artificial
intelligence achieve before researchers can claim that it has reached rats’ level of
success? In the absence of a reasonably precise criterion for when an artificial

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 15/16
09/06/25, 11:24 artificial intelligence | Britannica

system counts as intelligent, there is no objective way of telling whether an AI

research program has succeeded or failed. One result of AI’s failure to produce a
satisfactory criterion of intelligence is that, whenever researchers achieve one of
AI’s goals—for example, a program that can hold a conversation like GPT or
beat the world chess champion like Deep Blue—critics are able to say, “That’s
not intelligence!” Marvin Minsky’s response to the problem of defining
intelligence is to maintain—like Turing before him—that intelligence is simply
our name for any problem-solving mental process that we do not yet
understand. Minsky likens intelligence to the concept of “unexplored regions of
Africa”: it disappears as soon as we discover it.

CITATION INFORMATION
ARTICLE TITLE: artificial intelligence
WEBSITE NAME: Encyclopaedia Britannica
PUBLISHER: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
DATE PUBLISHED: 04 June 2025
URL: https://www.britannica.comhttps://www.britannica.com/technology/artificial-intelligence
ACCESS DATE: June 09, 2025

https://www.britannica.com/print/article/37146 16/16