it's not what you think it is. it's really actually the same thing as a google search. every time you searched google over the last 30 years, you were using a system that is functionally identical to what we call "artificial intelligence".
the physics of cognition is immensely data and computation intensive, so much so that the idea of using a computer to emulate even the intelligence of a bird or small mammal is beyond the limits of current technology, and beyond the limits of what we can project as future technology. all we can actually do is automate the process of searching a database, which does not remotely emulate cognition, let alone intelligence.
i have previously called for industry to refrain from using the term "artificial intelligence" to describe advanced and automated search algorithms. they should call it what it is, not what it isn't. as it is, artificial intelligence is just a marketing term.
this remains the best short analysis of ai for a general audience that i'm aware of: