Artificial intelligence (or AI) is both the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it.

Major AI textbooks define artificial intelligence as "the study and design of intelligent agents," where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions which maximize its chances of success. AI can be seen as a realization of an abstract intelligent agent (AIA) which exhibits the functional essence of intelligence. John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956, defines it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines."

Among the traits that researchers hope machines will exhibit are reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. This list of intelligent traits is based on the topics covered by the major AI textbooks, including: , , and . General intelligence (or "strong AI") has not yet been achieved and is a long-term goal of AI research. General intelligence (strong AI) is discussed by popular introductions to AI, such as: , ,

AI research uses tools and insights from many fields, including computer science, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, ontology, operations research, economics, control theory, probability, optimization and logic. AI research also overlaps with tasks such as robotics, control systems, scheduling, data mining, logistics, speech recognition, facial recognition and many others. Other names for the field have been proposed, such as computational intelligence, synthetic intelligence, intelligent systems, or computational rationality.