For some programmers, the goal is to come up with a superior form of AI by building software models of the smartest computer currently known, the brain, and seeing if those models can learn and adapt their behaviour as we can. Others approach it in a different way believing that computers can be useful for simulating biology. Systems which use this grid and rule approach are called cellular automata. SimCity falls into this category although it uses far more complicated rules than the Game of Life.
Cellular automata can seem far removed from the real world but other are much closer to home.
Neural networks promise better artificial intelligence by borrowing from the structure of the organic brain. An individual neurons act on signals from other neurons, either firing or not firing. Each neuron can either excite or inhibit other neurons. Stable patterns of activity appear in response to input given from outside the system. These patterns represent memories recorded as the connections between neurons.