This document provides an introduction to artificial intelligence (AI) including:
1. Definitions of AI from four perspectives: systems that think like humans, act like humans, think rationally, and act rationally.
2. A brief history of AI from its origins in the 1940s through recent advances in neural networks, hidden Markov models, and intelligent agents.
3. An overview of key periods in AI's development including the initial enthusiasm in the 1950s-60s, a move to realism in the 1960s-70s, the rise of knowledge-based systems and expert systems in the 1970s-80s, and recent progress in neural networks.