In the 1950s, a new field, cognitive psychology, emerged as a dialogue between the growing capabilities of digital computers and the study of human cognition and perception. Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers began to develop models of perception, reasoning, knowledge organisation, and natural language communication. They also created neural networks, expert systems, and other software with practical applications. AI models in turn have offered provocative insights into the human mind; now, new developments in virtual community and cyberspace point toward a future in which human and computer minds will interact in increasingly complex ways. Ultimately, AI research compels us to ask what it is that makes us human.

Artificial Intelligence presents dynamic new portraits of the men and women in the vanguard of this innovative field. Subjects include Alan Turing, who made the connection between mathematical reasoning and computer operations; Alan Newell and Herbert Simon, who created a program that could reason like a human being; Pattie Maes, who developed computerised agents to help people with research and shopping; and Ray Kurzweil, who, besides inventing the flatbed scanner and a reading machine for the blind, has explored relationships between people and computers that may exceed human intelligence.