I’ve worked for a long time in Artificial Intelligence. Except that isn’t totally true, because I spent most of my Masters and PhD working in Mutli-agent systems. MAS is a subfield of AI, but most of my work and connections were around multi-agent systems. We also focused on knowledge-based search, which is again a subfield of AI, but its own area and its own focus. Even when I did other things in “AI” they were in specifics area within AI. One of the folks on my floor insisted on calling me the “non-AI AI guy” because I never really resonated with “AI”.
To tell you the truth, I actually don’t think there is such a thing as “Artificial Intelligence,” at least as an academic field.
It’s certainly the case that none of the early researchers in AI wanted to share a common definition, because they each has such specific focuses and research directions that were only part of a loose net.
So for this first post, I wanted to gather a few artificial intelligence definitions, compare them and share what I think AI is.
Definitions
I’ll start with my friend and colleague Jonathan Hudson, who teaches “AI” here at the University of Calgary.
AI deals with the development of systems either displaying a behavior humans associate with intelligence or solving a problem humans think only an intelligent being can solve.
(Hudson, 2025)
One of the common textbooks for AI, Artificial Intelligence, A modern approach uses this as a definition:
We call ourselves Homo sapiens—man the wise—because our intelligence is so important to us. For thousands of years, we have tried to understand how we think; that is, how a mere handful of matter can perceive, understand, predict, and manipulate a world far larger and more complicated than itself. The field of artificial intelligence, or AI, goes further still: it attempts not just to understand but also to build intelligent entities.
(Russell and Norvig, 2010)
The Government of Canada (or at least the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces), uses this the definition of AI:
For DND/CAF, AI is considered the capability of a computer to do things that are normally associated with human cognition, such as reasoning, learning, and self-improvement.
(Government of Canada, 2024)
John McCarthy (who apparently coined the term Artificial Intelligence) provides the following in his article “What is Artificial Intelligence”
It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable.
(McCarthy, 2007)
And I’ll note my notion of AI as a not quite real term is backed up by the account in by Solomonoff (2020) that McCarthy coined AI as a made-up neutral term that the Dartmouth Summer Research Project were included.
He boldly picked the name “Artificial Intelligence.” He chose the name partly for its neutrality; avoiding a focus on narrow automata theory, and avoiding cybernetics which was too heavily focused on analog feedback, as well as him potentially having to accept the assertive Norbert Wiener as guru or having to argue with him.
(Solomonoff, 2020)
The definition in the application for funding for is quite interesting as well:
The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use lanuage, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves. We think that a sig- nificant advance can be made in one or more of these problems if a carefully selected group of scientists work on it together for a summer.
(McCarthy, et al, 1955)
I quite like the Wikipedia page on Artificial Intelligence and their definition for covering the breadth of AI:
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of research in computer science that develops and studies methods and software that enable machines to perceive their environment and use learning and intelligence to take actions that maximize their chances of achieving defined goals.
(Wikipedia 2026)
EDUCause, relevant for the learning technology aspect, has slightly changed their definition since the first time thought about writing this post.
Currently they have:
Artificial Intelligence or AI refers to the simulated human intelligence in machines or computers that are programmed to undertake tasks usually thought to require human cognitive processes and decision-making capabilities.
(Educause 2026)
But the last time I looked it up (and sadly did not note the date like a good researcher):
Artificial Intelligence or AI refers to computer systems that undertake tasks usually thought to require human cognitive processes and decision-making capabilities.
I’m not quite sure what accounts for the emphasis on “simulated human intelligence in machines”.
My Position
So I can (and probably will) keep gathering definitions, but in an effort to actually post this today, I’m going to move on to sharing my thoughts and where I stand on what AI is.
We can see from the collection of definitions here, that Artificial Intelligence is very dependant on “Intelligence” which has its own set of murky definitions and complications as soon as people start poking into it. Research into Artificial Intelligence is driven in two ways one is to better understand intelligence and the other is to find ways to let computers solve problems that are hard for computers to solve.
In fact, and here’s my bold claim, AI has generally been the field where we stuff all of the problems which are too hard or too vague to solve using other methods. As we find solutions those areas tend to become their own subfields of computing and AI moves on.
For my own part, I think of AI as:
a collection of techniques to solve problems, largely inspired by the way people solve problems (heuristics), or inspired by the way problems are solved in nature. It also involves exploring the way intelligence works to help illuminate how we think and solve problems.
References
Artificial Intelligence (January 8, 2026) in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence
EDUCause Artificial Intelligence https://library.educause.edu/topics/infrastructure-and-research-technologies/artificial-intelligence-ai Accessed January 9, 2026
Government of Canada (March 3, 2024) What is AI? https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/reports-publications/dnd-caf-artificial-intelligence-strategy/what-is-ai.html Access January 9, 2026
Hudson, J. (2025) Introduction CPSC 433: Artificial Intelligence Fall 2025
McCarthy, J .(2007) What is Artificial Intelligence? http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/whatisai.html
McCarthy, J., Minsky, M., Rochester, N., Shannon, C. (2006) A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence August 31, 1955. AI Magazine. Volume 27, Number 4 https://doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v27i4.1904
Russell, S. and Norvig, P. (2010) Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Prentice Hall
Solomonoff, G. (2010) Ray Solomonoff and the Dartmouth Summer Research Project in Artificial Intelligence, 1956 http://raysolomonoff.com/dartmouth/dartray.pdf