Artificial reality is earliest introduced by Myron Krueger in the mid-1970s to describe his computer generated responsive environments.
Commonly known as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR)
VR is an artificial, computer-generated simulation or recreation of a real life environment or situation.
AR is a technology that layers computer-generated enhancements atop an existing reality in order to make it more meaningful through the ability to interact with it.
In my understanding, artificial reality is a human made space, providing a whole new experience, which is not easy or impossible to reach in our real life.
There are two elements making the reality, which are senses and imaginations. Imaginations create the reality, and senses reinforce the experience of the reality. Sight, Hearing, taste, smell, and touch all could be used for building the reality.
A senior manager Souda Takehito from Sony company talked about artificial reality on an interview. He said a surrey shows that >90% experience of artificial reality come from visual and hearing senses.
That is why VR is the most common word for talking about the Artificial Reality.