Please note that this is not supposed to be a debate on the ethical or moral questions surrounding AI (personally, I subscribe to the Azimov model as being preferred), but more a question as to what AI actually is.
So yes - what do you guys think Artifical Intelligence actually is - or what the term stands for.
I'm a big fan of sci-fi. I've read everything from H.G. Wells to Issac Azimov to Anne McCaffrey, from The Forever War to The Martian, and will probably be looking for a set of The Leviathan Wakes soon enough. And in each of these, there is usually some form of robot or computer that assists the characters. Now, most of the time, this computer is generally a form of Artificial Intelligence - although the exact details vary from title to title, they generally are able to learn, make intuitive leaps, and also form whatever sort of Deus Ex Machina the author wants it to be at the time.
But in the real world, I read discussions about AI all the time - an I'm beginning to think that the term is losing much of its impact - kinda how the term "life" has progressed from being actually walking humanoids at the start of the 20th Century, to NASA saying that any form of biological reaction on a planetary surface (i.e. bacteria) is "life".
Take video games for example (relevent, I know...). Generally speaking, the term "game AI" usually refers to the behaviors of the various NPCs, their combat cycles etc. But, can this really be called Artifical Intelligence? Isn't it technically more a case of a very complicated decision tree? One of the things that defines modern MMO raiding is that the bosses and enemies all follow predictable patterns - they don't jump phases, they don't suddenly do some new kind of attack out of the blue.
And also the modern world. On our national news website today, there was an article about how AI will "reshape our lives". But even in that article, it seems to confuse Artifical Intelligence with algorthims and automation.
Perhaps its just the sci-fi nut in me getting angry with others seeming to degrade the nature of an interesting term in my view.
But what do you guys think? Is the term getting degraded/undermined? Or are we just refining what the term means?