Who is this Al everybody is talking about?

Lately I have been reading blogs and articles that mention a guy named Al. They never say the man's last name. It's as if it should be obvious which Al they are talking about. I really feel like I'm missing out. So I start thinking - Al Gore? No, there's no context about polar bears for emotional manipulation, or how much jet fuel it takes to get you to Sweden. It can't be Gore. Al Franken? Nothing funny. Not Al Jolson - the things I'm reading when I see Al are not about music or singing, they're usually about science or technology. Albert Einstein? No, for so many years nobody called him Al , why would they suddenly start now?

Let me tell you where I started seeing Al mentioned. One blog post talked about how spammers are using Al to decipher those letter puzzles on websites called CAPTCHAs. Another talked about how computer scientists are now using Al to help advance their entire field. (Maybe it is Al Gore, what with that whole Internet thing he started.) Then there was a blog mentioning a book titled "Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the Machine" This Al guy is really important in computer science. He's got to be really fast with numbers, because people seem to think he can actually outperform present-day computers.

I tried Googling [Al "really smart"] and got references to Al Stewart of "Time Passages" (or Time Path-a-gezzz) fame, and mention of how the Today show tried portraying Al Franken as "really smart", but nobody would pass up the chance to use the name Franken, so it can't be him. Then there were results involving Alabama. I hadn't thought of that. AL is the abbreviation for Alabama. Could it be that Alabama is deciphering those letter puzzles on websites called CAPTCHAs, and doing other things to advance computer science? I guess if they all work together it's possible, but I just don't know. Besides it's AL not Al.

I can't figure this out. It's weird. Maybe I can get a computer to figure it out for me. I said - maybe I can get a computer to figure it out for me.