What is Artificial Intelligence?

Being a computer scientist, making computers perform better is what I do. But making them intelligent is entirely a different story! Here are a few definitions of AI.    Send me your definition.

• "The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim."
      - Edsger W. Dijkstra

• "It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable."
     - John McCarthy

• The eight definitions from Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Russell and Norvig:
  
  • "The exciting new effort to make computers think .. machines with minds, in the full and literal sense" (Haugeland, 1985)
  • "[The automation of] activities that we associate with human thinking, activities such as decision-making, problem solving, learning ..." (Bellman, 1978)
  • "The study of mental faculties through the use of computational models" (Charniak and McDermott, 1985)
  • "The study of the computations that make it possible to perceive, reason, and act" (Winston, 1992)
  • "The art of creating machiens that pefrom functions that require intelligence when performed by people" (Kurzweil, 1990)
  • "The study of how to make computers do things at which, at the moment, people are better" (Rich and Knight, 1991)
  • "A field of study that seeks to explain and emulate intelligent behavior in terms of computational processes" (Schalkoff, 1990)
  • "The branch of computer science that is conerned with the automation of intelligent behavior" (Luger and Stubblefield, 1993)

• "The branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans."
     - webopedia

• "Anything that doesn't scale."
     - Anonymous