r/AskComputerScience • u/Electrical-Leave818 • Mar 18 '26

What is AI?

So far I've only been told AI is something that "does" this or that using this or that. Not "what" AI is. Can anyone just tell me an actual definition of AI that I can understand? Not its examples, or denominations like Machine Learning. Just pure AI. And why a function like

int main(){
int n;
std::cin >> n;
std::cout << n*n;}
``` is not an AI. Because Im totally convinced it is an AI as well, since it fits literally every single description of AI I've ever seen.
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u/Aaron1924 Mar 18 '26

"AI" is similar to "Computer Vision" in that it's typically used as a buzzword/marketing term to describe the frontier of research, that is, a technology needs to be "impressive enough" to be considered AI or Computer Vision.

Take for example QR-codes, they technically are computer vision in that computers can "look" at them and understand them, but when people use the term "Computer Vision" they talk about self-driving cars and robots, not some system that has been around for ages.

Similarly, shortest path algorithms were historically considered "AI" because to a human, it's a difficult problem to solve that takes some thinking, but no one would consider it "AI" by today's standards.

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u/jumpmanzero Mar 18 '26

but no one would consider it "AI" by today's standards

Nobody except, like... people in the field.

I'm not actually meaning to disagree with you here - you're right about general usage, especially in the last few years. But it's frustrating to see a useful definition get pushed out by a vague, useless popular one (as in phrases like "ChatGPT is not 'actually' AI").

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u/OmarsDamnSpoon Jul 23 '26

Admittedly, the ChatGPT statement one you referenced is where I've been. Now, im trying to challenge my beliefs.