intelligence - definition

Any product that has some thinking, reasoning or decision making ability.

Mechanical technologies are epitomized by cogs and wheels and physical actions. For example, a waterwheel is physically pushed by the water. Whilst the water wheel speeds up and slows down in response to the flow of water, we do not say it is intelligent because it is merely reactive in its movements.
In contrast, electronic technologies can be programmed to detect certain events happening and then respond accordingly. This could be as simple as a motion detector turning on and off an outside light or it could be as sophisticated as a supercomputer beating the world champion at chess.
Many effects that appear to be intelligent are relatively simple and merely tap into the speed with which computers can complete their tasks or they tap into a stored memory. For example, a spell checker for word processing software may appear to be very clever when in reality it is merely comparing your word with a list of words stored in its memory.
Remember, whilst we are saying a product is ‘intelligent’ we are not saying it can think like a human being.