Jargon:Artificial Intelligence (AI)
2 min read
Say this at the party
“Getting computers to do jobs we'd call clever if a person did them, like understanding speech, spotting patterns or answering questions.”
In plain English
John McCarthy, the man who named it, called AI "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs." In plain words: getting computers to do jobs we'd call clever if a person did them.
It's a big umbrella word. Chess computers, chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude, and tools that help scientists hunt for new medicines all count. Most of it is just software solving a problem, not a robot with a mind.
It's also patchy. In 2026, Stanford's AI Index found the best model could read an old-style clock face only about half the time. Yet top models score well on very hard expert exams.
Where it came from
The name is in print in a funding proposal dated 31 August 1955, written by John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester and Claude Shannon. It asked for "a 2 month, 10 man study of artificial intelligence" in summer 1956. That workshop at Dartmouth College made the name famous. McCarthy reportedly chose it partly because it sounded neutral, so he didn't have to follow (or argue with) Norbert Wiener, the leading figure of "cybernetics" (the study of control and feedback in machines and animals). The idea is older than the name: British mathematician Alan Turing gave a lecture on it in 1947 and wrote his famous paper in 1950.
See it in action
You type "what can I make with eggs, spinach and feta?" into ChatGPT and get three recipes in seconds. That's AI. So was IBM's Deep Blue, the chess computer that beat Garry Kasparov in 1997, though it won mostly by checking about 200 million positions a second rather than "thinking".
What people get wrong
- AI isn't a robot with a human mind. McCarthy said it's only sometimes about copying people. Mostly it's software doing one job.
- It isn't all or nothing. A machine can be brilliant at one task and hopeless at another.
- Sounding clever isn't the same as being clever. McCarthy warned that people are easily fooled by "a rather dumb program".
- It isn't new. The name is over 70 years old. Chatbots are just the newest kind.
Where Ugenie fits
Ugenie uses AI too. Like all AI, it's handy for some jobs and can still slip up, so it's worth checking what it gives you.
Get Ugenie →Go deeper
- PaperMcCarthy, Minsky, Rochester and Shannon, 1955A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, August 31, 1955The earliest known use of the name, and a big promise for one summer.
- ArticleMatthew S. Smith, IEEE Spectrum, 202612 Graphs That Explain the State of AI in 2026Where AI stands now: fast progress, odd mistakes, unclear effect on jobs.
- ArticleWikipedia contributorsDartmouth workshopThe story of the 1956 meeting, and why McCarthy picked the name.
- ArticleDartmouth College, 2026The Founding and Future of AIDartmouth's own telling of where the field began.
Related jargon
Drafted with AI. The AI Council (Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini) gave counsel. Phin signed it off.