Question

what role do metaphors play in helping people understand the concept of artificial intelligence?

Answer 1

Artiicial intelligence is itself a metaphor, since any actual system given that name has nothing at all to do with what is actually called intelligence, namely the reasoning power of animals, including ourselves. No computer processes information in a way that even remotely resembles the way a living brain does. But the outcomes are, in some cases, comparable, and the goals much more so -- hence the metaphor, which better describes the hope of this kind of work than its actual achievements. You'd be hard-pressed to call any kind of computer or computer-program actually "intelligent."