All spacecraft and even regular aircraft use computers to make critical flight decisions faster than humans can. That is not artificial intelligence, and neithe

All spacecraft and even regular aircraft use computers to make critical flight decisions faster than humans can. That is not artificial intelligence, and neither is what the article describes. It actually is considered "artificial intelligence" according to a strict definition of the term. This would be a kind of weak AI called an "expert system". The article is about extending this system beyond traditional expert systems by allowing greater environmental feedback to influence future automatic decision making. Still firmly in the weak AI sphere, but exciting nonetheless. Many journalists are guilty of leaping right into the Hal 9000 strong AI angle and then sensationalizing the dangers of strong AI run amok. I thought this article did a good job of not going too overboard, although Hal got the obligatory mention. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_AI_vs._weak_AI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_AI_vs._weak_AI