Question: By artificial intelligence what do you mean?

Joanna Bryson answered on 18 Jun 2013:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence that humans have built — usually on a computer, but it’s also possible to make things behave intelligently just by shaping their bodies the right way. For example, a thermostat can decide it’s too cold & turn the heat on just by using a spring, a magnet & being wired to electricity & the radiators. But it can only decide that because humans have set it up to measure temperature with the spring — that’s what makes it AI.

**(metal springs expand when they get warmer & contract when they get colder, that’s why this can work.)