Artificial intelligence (or AI) is when computers and machines are programmed to do tasks that normally require human thinking. These tasks include recognizing faces in photos, understanding spoken words, playing chess, driving cars, or writing stories.

Regular computer programs follow exact instructions: if this happens, do that. AI programs are different. They can learn from examples and improve over time, similar to how you get better at multiplication after practicing many problems. When an AI learns to identify dogs in pictures, programmers don't write rules about fur, tails, and ears. Instead, they show the AI thousands of dog photos, and it figures out the patterns itself.

You already use AI regularly. When you ask Siri or Alexa a question, AI understands your voice and finds an answer. When Netflix suggests shows you might like, that's AI predicting your interests based on what you've watched before. Video game characters that adapt to how you play are using AI too.

Scientists have been working on AI since the 1950s, but computers have only recently become powerful enough to make AI truly useful. Today's best AI can write essays, create artwork, and beat world champions at complex games, but it still can't match human intelligence in most ways. AI doesn't truly understand what it's doing the way humans do; it just processes patterns in data incredibly quickly.