Angie Smibert - Artificial Intelligence: Thinking Machines and Smart Robots with Science Activities for Kids

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Can computers think? Can they learn? Will machines ever match humans in the ability to think critically and creatively? Artificial intelligence (AI) used to exist only in science fiction books and movies. Today, we have cars that can drive themselves, robots that can walk on their own, and computer programs that can answer our questions and find solutions to different problems.

What exactly is artificial intelligence? AI means different things to different people, and our understanding of it has changed through the years. Artificial, of course, refers to something made by humans, such as a machine. Intelligence is trickier to define.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

Is there a difference between acting intelligent and being intelligent?

WORDS TO KNOW

artificial intelligence (AI): the intelligence of a computer, program, or machine.

science fiction: a story about contact with other worlds and imaginary science and technology.

human intelligence: the capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity, and problem-solving.

grandmaster: a chess player of the highest class who has won tournaments.

supercomputer: a powerful computer.

forfeit: to surrender a game.

Scientists dont even really agree on what intelligence is in humans. Human intelligence differs from animal intelligence, and it might differ from computer intelligence, too.

One way to define human intelligence is to include the following abilities.

To learn from experience

To reason and solve problems

To remember information

To cope with life

In the early days of AI, scientists started with a basic definition. AI is a computer or machine behavior that would be judged intelligent if it was something a human didsuch as winning a chess match.

DID YOU KNOW?

A chess match is when players play more than one game to see who wins the most.

By that definition, a computer named Deep Blue might be considered intelligent, since it beat Grandmaster Garry Kasparov at chess. If a human did that, wed consider them intelligent. However, Deep Blue beat Kasparov by calculating hundreds of millions of moves per second. Is this the same as human intelligence?

The computer didnt truly understand what it was doing, not like a human would.

Scientists have been working for decades to develop computers that can think. It wasnt until close to the end of the last century, though, that they made a significant breakthrough with Deep Blue, an IBM supercomputer .

Garry Kasparov playing chess with young Tunisian players

credit: Khaled Abdelmoumen

HUMAN VS. MACHINE

Billed as the chess match of the century, the 1997 match between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue featured human vs. artificial intelligence. In the second game of the match, Kasparov, the human, set the trap. He baited his opponent to take his pawn. Deep Blue, the IBM supercomputer, didnt fall for it. Instead, the AI made a masterful, human-like move. Kasparov was stunned.