Long term goal of artificial intelligence:

This is not to be complex with the applications of AI programs to other sciences, discussed later. Rather, it is just pointing out that some AI researchers don't write intelligent programs and are surely not interested inbreathing life or human intelligence into programs. They all are really interested in the different scientific problems that arise during the study of Artificial Intelligence. One example is the question of algorithmic complexity - how bad shall an individual algorithm get at solving a specific problem (in terms of the time taken to find the solution) as the problem instances get larger. These kinds of studies surely have an effect  on the other long term goals, but the pursuit of knowledge itself is  overlooked as a reason for AI to exist as a scientific discipline. However, we won't be wrapping issues likewise algorithmic complexity in this course.