5.Definition of artificial intelligence.

I have to acknowledge that I have never known the exact definition of artificial intelligence, perhaps because there are different, even contradictory, meanings of this term or expression.

When discussing the definition of artificial intelligence, both the term intelligence and the adjective artificial are problematic. We have dealt with the first previously and we can only accept the second as a conventional term and limit it to that which is performed by human beings. This does not, however, mean that we have to stop thinking; as a last resort, that which is artificial is completely natural because human beings are absolutely included in nature.

Generally speaking, there are two extreme classic stances regarding the concept of artificial intelligence: that which postulates the impossibility of its existence for being a characteristic of life and is impossible to transfer to a machine and the definition which accepts any artificial decision-making system as artificial intelligence as simple as it may be.

The famous Turing Test is placed in the middle of the definition of artificial intelligence by requiring the machine to behave like a human in its responses. It would obviously be a concept of artifical intelligence derived from the anthropomorphic concept of intelligence.

In sight of the reflections on the decision-making processes, the following is a proposed definition of artifical intelligence:

A machine's system of decision-making, created or not by human beings, that demonstrates certain intelligence, at least apparently, and has the characteristics of a vital impulse system.

However, a different stance for recognizing the essence of Life in things and in energy will take us to a more strict definition of artificial intelligence in the sense that this essence would be manifested at a level perceivable to humans.