
If you just use an array to store information then eventually that information will repeat itself. to me an AI is actually an AI when it learns showing true intelligences. Maybe what we should start calling all the AI are VI. But you certainly don't have to use databases to do this. Your last sentence sums up probably the hardest part of programs which allow a human to type anything - the ability to work out what someone actually means, since people can phrase a sentence in many different ways. Simple AI programs may not even need to do this. Why must you use databases? While complex AI programs will surely want to store data outside themselves to remember info between program runs, you don't have to use databases. It then must have to know how to put what you said into context. In order to create an AI in Visual Basic you will need to use databases, put pre-programmed phrases and have it save anything else you say to it. Although of course, simply saying 'Hello, world' is certainly not AI. AI (I thought, at least) simply refers to acting in a way which is human-like or can be regarded as intelligent. I'm not sure that a program has to do this to be classed as AI. Therefore it will learn the best decision to make for given circumstances. Generally that kind of program uses 'neural networks' in order to make a decision, based on 'memories' of results of previous decisions it's made.

This is not an AI - an AI teaches itself.
