What is Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence refers to computer systems designed to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence - recognising images, understanding language, making decisions, solving problems. The term was coined in 1956 and has meant different things at different times, from rule-based expert systems in the 1980s to the large language models of today. AI is not a single technology but a broad collection of approaches united by the goal of automating cognitive work. The key distinction from ordinary software is adaptability: traditional programs follow fixed rules written by programmers, while AI systems learn patterns from data and adjust their behaviour accordingly. This doesn't mean they "think" in any human sense - they identify statistical patterns and apply them to new inputs, sometimes with remarkable accuracy and sometimes with spectacular errors. Understanding this distinction between fixed rules and learned patterns is the single most useful starting point for making sense of what AI systems can do, where they struggle, and why they sometimes behave in unexpected ways.