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

In the 1940s and 50s, a handful of scientists from a variety of fields began to discuss the possibility of creating an artificial brain. The field of artificial intelligence research was founded as an academic discipline at a conference on the campus of Dartmouth College in the summer of 1956. The earliest research into thinking machines was inspired by a confluence of ideas that became prevalent in the late 30s, 40s and early 50s. Research in neurology had shown that the brain was an electrical network of neurons that fired in all-or-nothing pulses. This revelation suggested that it might be possible to construct an electronic brain. Examples of work in this domain includes robots such as Grey Walter's turtles and the Johns Hopkins Beast. These machines did not use computers, digital electronics or symbolic reasoning; they were controlled entirely by analog circuitry. Grey Walter's most famous work was his construction of some of the first electronic autonomous robots. He wanted to prove that rich connections between a small number of brain cells could give rise to very complex behaviors - essentially that the secret of how the brain worked lay in how it was wired up. His first robots, which he used to call Machina speculatrix and named Elmer and Elsie, were constructed between 1948 and 1949 and were often described as turtles due to their shape and slow rate of movement - and because they 'taught us' about the secrets of organisation and life. The three-wheeled turtle robots were capable of phototaxis, by which they could find their way to a recharging station when they ran low on battery power. The Johns Hopkins Beast was an early robot built in the 1960s at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The machine had a rudimentary intelligence and the ability to survive on its own. As it wandered through the white halls of the laboratory, it would seek black wall outlets. When it found one it would plug in and recharge.The robot was cybernetic. It did not use a computer. Its control circuitry consisted of dozens of transistors controlling analog voltages. It used photocell optics and sonar to navigate. The sonar guidance system was developed for Mod I and improved for Mod II. It used two ultrasonic transducers to determine distance, location and barriers in its path. This provided "The Beast" with bat-like guidance. In the 1980s a form of AI program called "expert systems" was adopted by corporations around the world and knowledge became the focus of mainstream AI research. It was a computer system that imitates the decision-making ability of a human. Expert systems were among the first truly successful forms of AI software. The field of AI, now more than a half a century old, finally achieved some of its oldest goals. It began to be used successfully throughout the technology industry. Algorithms originally developed by AI researchers began to appear as parts of larger systems. AI had solved a lot of very difficult problems and their solutions proved to be useful throughout the technology industry, such as data mining, industrial robotics, logistics, speech recognition, banking software, medical diagnosis and even Google's search engine. The field of AI receives little or no credit for these successes. Japanese scientists who are known for their innovations and breakthroughs in science, have developed a technology which enables human nervous system to connect with robot prototypes. One example is an Italian Pierpaolo Petruzziello. His amputated arm was connected to a robotic limb, allowing him to feel sensations and control the arm with only his thoughts. At first it was very hard because he had to visualize arm which he did not have. By sending electrical impulses from his brain he could move a robotic arm. Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University in Japan, went a step further. He and his team invented Actroid. Actroid is a type of android (humanoid robot) with strong visual human-likeness and the ability to talk. When the androids are talking people get a sense that they have a brain that allows it to control the words that are said. The act of talking for today androids is set by the people that have created them in the sense that these machines are talking like a cassette and they say what the engineers want them to say or what they are set to say as a response to a word or to a phrase. These androids do not think for themselves and they are not able to give answers by themselves, answers that are a result of a feeling or emotion. Hanson robotics, founded in late 2003, invents one of the most human-like androids. Conversational Character Robot named Jules, designed and built by David Hanson, may have the best properties of a thinking, emotional and rational being. Jules is AI, made with a light weight material called Frubber , which enables its face to be mobile and expressive. Most androids can not think for themselves, whereas Jules can think, memorize, learn and even express emotions. It is an example of true consciousness and creativity from a robot. People are feeling empathy when talking with robots which show emotions. We can only imagine how robotics and AI will evolve in the near future, and what kind of effect it will have on us humans.