Suppose the computer from the starship Enterprise or
the HAL 9000 from "2001, A Space Odyssey" had been scanning
intelligence data four years ago. Perhaps it would have made the
connection humans missed between terrorists and flight schools. Or
suppose such a computer were designing airline flight schedules: You
might get home for Christmas a little faster.

These are just some of the possibilities of "artificial
intelligence," or AI, which is not really about making computers that
talk back but rather about using computers for the things they are
good at: dealing with massive amounts of data or problems with a vast
number of choices.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May05/IISIlaunch.ws.html