What is AI?

AI is not a new phenomenon. It can trace its origins to the early days of modern computing when the term was first coined in the 1950s – its mathematical and theoretical basis goes back even further.

While descriptions abound, we define AI as:

Technologies used to allow computers to perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, and language translation

AI is a broad discipline. Think of it as a group of complementary technologies, including data-driven techniques, which are evolving constantly. For this reason, our Strategy does not focus on any individual trends or innovations. Also, while automation and some aspects of robotics are connected to AI, they are not addressed directly in this Strategy.

Definitions of frequently used AI terms are provided in the Glossary at the bottom of this page.