AI vs non AI

one of the fundamental questions that I ask myself and others is what do we
mean by AI
because in these days of easy distributed computation, a lot of the
automated processes are referred to as AI, but in my view, they are not

this guiding question is useful groundwork for anything that follows

for example, we can order foods, and drinks and other clever stuff at
vending machines
the machine interfaces using natural language (generally messages on
stickers next to buttons, and/or digital displays)
and the execute commands and fulfil the order and give change etc.

but this is not AI, imho

When we book a train seat and the machine shows the available slots, that
is not AI,  its a very basic computational operation
(display the seats available)  and so on

reading, writing, and a lot of other human routines can become automated
without any particular AI, they are simple routines


so I would find it useful to have a definition of AI that differentiates
between routines and non routines

of the non routine tasks, some are relatively mechanical for humans (select
the boxes with fire hydrants) it does not
take any intelligence to id a hydrant, bet we can train monkeys!!! or even
parrots!!

*to be unpacked further

PDM