Artificial intelligence (AI) is a product of the computer age. Although people have fantasized about making intelligent creations since the dawn of time, until the latter half of the twentieth century the motive power for these creations was magic. Machines such as Babbage's Analytical Engine suggested that a mechanical solution might be feasible, but limitations in precision manufacturing prevented this from getting very far. It was not until the advent of electronics and the computer that researchers began to see that the dream might one day be a practical reality, and now progress towards genuine thinking machines has begun to occur.