
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to 
create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent 
agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. 
John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956, defines it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent 
machines."
The field was founded on the claim that a central property of humans, intelligence - the sapience of Homo sapien -"can 
be so precisely described that it can be simulated by a machine.
This raises philosophical issues about the nature of the mind and the ethics of creating artificial beings, issues 
which have been addressed by myth, fiction and philosophy since antiquity. Artificial intelligence has been the 
subject of optimism,The optimism referred to includes the predictions of early AI researchers as well as the ideas of 
modern transhumanists such as Ray Kurzweil. The "setbacks" referred to include the ALPAC report of 1966, the 
abandonment of perceptrons in 1970, the Lighthill Report of 1973 and the collapse of the lisp machine market in 
1987. and, today, has become an essential part of the technology industry, providing the heavy lifting for many of 
the most difficult problems in computer science.
AI research is highly technical and specialized, and deeply divided into subfields that often fail to communicate 
with each other. Subfields have grown up around particular institutions, the work of individual researchers, the 
solution of specific problems, longstanding differences of opinion about how AI should be done and the application 
of widely differing tools. 
The central problems of AI include such traits as reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, 
perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. General intelligence (or "strong AI") is still among 
the field's long term goals.
