For as long as humans have appeared, we have been the cleverest on Earth. Monkeys know how to use simple tools. Elephants can be taught how to count. But things like art, literature, and space travel have only been made possible by the amazing intelligence of humans. And yet, there are some who believe that we can create machines that can think and feel just like we do. Artificial intelligence（人工智能）, is defined（定义为）by Merriam﹣Webster as" the ability of a machine to copy intelligent human behaviour".
AI is around us every day. From Apple's voice﹣activated assistant Siri to the software algorithms（算法）that shipping companies use to deal with deliveries（投递）, AI is very much a part of our lives.
But why do we put so much effort into creating machines that can think the way we do? For one thing, AI can make our lives much easier. Imagine being able to be in a car, tell it your destination and sit back in comfort as the AI﹣guided self﹣driving car takes you there. We're already getting there—Changsha became the first city in China to roll out self﹣driving taxis in April 2020.
However, there are risks. What if we somehow produced an artificial intelligence that was smarter than us? How would it behave toward us? These are the kinds of difficult questions that AI researchers ask themselves all the time.
