What is narrow AI?
Narrow AI, also called weak AI or artificial narrow intelligence, is an AI system designed to perform a single, specific task. A spam filter, a face-recognition tool, a chess engine, and a large language model that answers questions are all narrow AI — each is optimized for one domain.
This is in contrast to artificial general intelligence (AGI), a hypothetical system that could match a human across any task.
Narrow AI is the only AI that exists today
Despite how capable modern chatbots and image generators feel, they're all narrow AI. They can be extraordinarily good within their scope, but they don't generalize beyond it. A language model can't drive a car; a self-driving system can't draft an essay.
Why the distinction matters
Understanding that today's AI is narrow helps set realistic expectations. A tool can be transformative within its domain while still being unable to reason, plan, or adapt the way a person would across domains. That gap is exactly what researchers working toward AGI are trying to close.
When you evaluate an AI product, you're always evaluating a narrow AI — the question is simply how well it handles its specific task.