I agree with you more or less, my idea of AI is a program that when given input will not only respond but observe it's response and continue to modify it's resp

I agree with you more or less, my idea of AI is a program that when given input will not only respond but observe it's response and continue to modify it's response to find a unique (and optimal) solution. I think that this necessitates self-modifying programs but I am no expert. I also think a lot of the trouble I have with the term stems from the ambiguity in the word artificial. Artificial smile vs artificial diamond.