Recent advances in programmable metasurfaces, known as software-defined metasurfaces (SDMs), offer a paradigm shift from uncontrollable to fully tunable and customizable wireless propagation environments, enabling a plethora of new applications and technological trends. To explore this cutting-edge technological concept, we review the architecture and electromagnetic (EM) wave manipulation functionalities of SDMs, detail recent advances toward realizing these programmable functionalities in wireless communication applications, elaborate on how artificial intelligence (AI) can address various constraints introduced by the real-time deployment of SDMs, review state-of-the-art research on the integration of AI with SDMs, and offer a look ahead toward unexplored possibilities of AI mechanisms in the context of SDMs.

中文翻译：

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人工智能和软件定义超表面的相互作用：机遇和限制概述

可编程超表面（称为软件定义超表面 (SDM)）的最新进展提供了从不可控到完全可调和可定制的无线传播环境的范式转变，从而实现了大量新应用和技术趋势。为了探索这一前沿技术概念，我们回顾了 SDM 的架构和电磁 (EM) 波操纵功能，详细介绍了在无线通信应用中实现这些可编程功能的最新进展，详细说明了人工智能 (AI) 如何解决引入的各种限制通过 SDM 的实时部署，回顾人工智能与 SDM 集成的最新研究，并展望在 SDM 背景下人工智能机制的未探索可能性。