The EU AI Act (draft) proposes a definition in Article 3(1):
‘Artificial Intelligence system’ (AI system) means software that is developed with one or more of the techniques and approaches listed in Annex I and can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, generate outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing the environments they interact with.’
The techniques and approaches referred to in Annex I are:
• Machine learning approaches, including supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning, using a wide variety of methods including deep learning;
• logic- and knowledge-based approaches, including knowledge representation, inductive (logic) programming, knowledge bases, inference and deductive engines, (symbolic) reasoning and expert systems;
• statistical approaches, Bayesian estimation, search and optimization methods
Artificial intelligence is sometimes referred to as the study/domain of problem-solving, pattern recognition, and rationality within machines.