Research in artificial intelligence (AI) has led to revise the challenges of the AI initial programme as well as to keep us alert to peculiarities and limitations of human cognition. Both are linked, as a careful further reading of the Turing’s test makes it clear from Searle’s Chinese room apologue and from Deyfus’s suggestions, and in both cases, ideal had to be turned into operating mode. In order to rise these more pragmatic challenges AI does not hesitate to link together operations of various levels and functionalities, more specific or more general. The challenges are not met by an operating formal system which should have from the outset all the learning skills, but -for instance in simulation- by the dynamics of a succession of solutions open to adjustments as well as to reflexive repeats.