underisk

I’d say it’s more like a way to describe a certain kind of algorithm. One that adapts in some way to inputs that defy simple classification. Ultimately you’re probably just safe to replace AI in modern news and internet discussion with LLM or CNN.

Like most things, meaning depends on context. In the most common context of “news about AI” we’re talking about generative AI: image/video generators, LLMs, and to a lesser degree coding assistants. If you want to know more about what these technologies share in common, look up what a “perceptron” is and how it works.

More generally AI could mean anything from a neural network based approach to problem solving, to a completely deterministic, hand coded heuristic. A pure decision tree could be AI in the case of video game NPCs, for example.