#581 AI

After years in the wilderness, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) seems [1] to make a comeback. AI was big in the 1980s but vanished in the 1990s. It re-entered public [2] with the release of Al, a movie about a robot boy. This has [3] public debate about AI, but the term is also being used once more within the computer industry. Researchers, executives and marketing people are now using the expression without irony or [4] commas. And it is not always hype. The term is being applied, with some justification, to products that depend on technology that was originally developed by AI researchers. Admittedly, the [5] of the term has a long way to go, and some firms still prefer to avoid using it. But the fact that others are starting to use it again suggests that AI has moved on from being seen as an over-ambitious and under-achieving field of research.