Artificial Intelligence: the paradox of a victorious retreat

The current success of AI comes from the abandonment of the ambitious goals from which it was born. After remembering the most significant steps of AI, this article presents a sample of definitions of AI collected through interviews with around 700 researchers during their world conferences in Karlsruhe and Los Angeles in the 1980s. Their rereading testifies to the radical change in AI’s objectives. Without dwelling on the strictly technical aspects of old and new AI, the article underlines how, even in this case, the artificial, if freed from the ‘obligatory’ purpose of reproducing the natural as it is, can get notable effectiveness, though exhibiting an inevitable diversity that must be understood and culturally accepted.