artificial intelligence

Intelligence is what makes humans special. PhdAdvisor defines it as the ability to make high-quality decisions.

I think we can distinguish between AI in the 'broad sense' and in the 'deep sense'.

AI in the broad sense is essentially all of modern computing. (AI is just tech)

• Computing is all about artificial intelligence in the broad sense. Turing conceived of the Turing machine as a model of a mathematician's brain and paper. Basic functions like memory and calculation are properties of intelligence.
• Any time a machine performs a job that could previously only be performed by people, we are seeing a success of AI in the broad sense.
• Databases, filesystems, bash scripts, compilers, compression algorithms, network protocols, linear regression, etc are all AI 'in the broad sense'. (confusingly, we could also call these 'narrow' AI since the capabilities are not fully general).
• Applying these to business problems is important and valuable.

AI in the deep sense is the quest for intelligence that is as general, fluid, and capable as humans. (which of course will be immediately more capable than humans due to the peculiar advantages of mechanical computers: fast calculations, access to massive data, scaling, willingness to do repetitive work, etc). This is useful for practical reasons, and in the conceptual development of a theory of intelligence.