Faux friends

In Steven Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence, David, the robot boy, wanted to be real. As research into machine sentience advances, how long will it be before David's yearnings are felt in millions of cybernetic hearts all over the world? Sean Nicholls explores AI.

1. Artificial Intelligence - Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals and humans.

2. Robot - A robot (also called a droid) is a machine - especially one programmable by a computer - capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.