What Is AI?
For more than seventy years, making computers that are smarter than humans has been the goal of some computer scientists (people who build and program computers). Since the creation of computers in the 1950s, scientists have fantasized about the possibilities of artificial intelligence, or AI. AI is a tool that helps computers to identify patterns, solve problems, and perform tasks by analyzing data.
As computers have become more powerful, AI is now a part of our everyday lives. Once, we picked up a telephone and made a call to a restaurant. People now type with AI to learn how soon their online order will be delivered. There was a time when we wrote down reminders and appointments, but now we ask a digital assistant, such as Siri or Alexa, to add them to our calendars. And we once relied on paper maps. But now AI shows and tells us turn-by-turn directions to work or school.
The goal of artificial intelligence is efficiency. A computer program can analyze a process and decide the fastest way to complete a task or chore. Though the term “artificial intelligence” might sound like movie magic, AI is simply computer programs designed by humans that follow a set of directions that have been created by a computer engineer or software developer.
This isn’t a new idea. In fact, every video game we play, every website we visit, and every phone app we download are just computer programs that follow the directions of the person who made them.
But there are big differences between video games and AI. A video game recognizes only the data it has been given. Meanwhile, AI can handle large amounts of information, rapidly analyze it, and make a quick decision on how to react to what it “sees.” How AI interprets that information is what makes it an “intelligence.”
In the last forty years alone, AI has become more powerful than ever. But with each passing year, AI becomes stronger, faster, and smarter. The long-term goal for many computer scientists is to create AI systems that have the same intellectual abilities as humans...or beyond.
Copyright © 2026 by Wes Locher; illustrated by Dede Putra. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
