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I think a good definition of AI might be things that can’t be done (or at least we don’t know how to do them) with traditional deterministic programming techniq

I think a good definition of AI might be things that can’t be done (or at least we don’t know how to do them) with traditional deterministic programming techniques (that is, humans write code that directly tells the computer what to do). Things like traditional chess programs (i.e., those that don't use neural networks/ML) are maybe a borderline case, as while they are just tree search with a bunch of human-tuned evaluation heuristics, the search depth is so huge that it's difficult for humans to explain why they take certain actions.

wpietri 3y ago
I think that's a plausible start at a definition, but I think the ship has sailed on the term having a real definition at all. Once marketers get hold of a term, it doesn't really matter what people who like definitions or precision think. As an example, I was active in the Agile movement before that term was coined. When I've talked recently with the early-days people I keep in touch with, we're all kinda horrified by what the term has come to mean. And it's not like we didn't fight along the way for clarity. But most people just don't care about the precise use of a term when there's a profitable (mis)use of the term.