Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!metro!grivel!gara!pnettlet
From: pnettlet@gara.une.oz.au (Philip Nettleton)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: What AI is exactly.
Summary: Flame again?
Message-ID: <3568@gara.une.oz.au>
Date: 7 Sep 90 03:46:32 GMT
References: <34175@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> <25392@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <38801@siemens.siemens.com>
Organization: University of New England, Armidale, Australia
Lines: 85

In article <38801@siemens.siemens.com>, wood@jfred.siemens.edu (Jim Wood) writes:
> I originally wrote:
> 
> >>    Artificial Intelligence is a computer science and engineering
> >>    discipline which attempts to model human reasoning methods
> >>    computationally.
> 
> and pnettlet@gara.une.oz.au (Philip Nettleton) writes [and I edit]:
> 
> >I think it is a terribly poor definition, actually, for the following
> >reasons:
> 
> >a)	Human intelligence is NOT the only form of intelligence.  This is an
> >	extremely one-eyed viewpoint.  Dolphins are extremely intelligent, and
> >	the only reason we cannot communicate with them to date is because of
> >	the extreme differences in our vocal ranges and auditory senses.
> >	There is also a huge cultural gap.  What concerns do dolphins have?
> >	What form does their communication take?  We need to know these
> >	BEFORE we can even look at syntax and semantics.  Hence their
> >	intelligence is very alien to ours.
> 
> Agreed with (a), but I do not recall having implied human intelligence is
> the only form of intelligence.  However, it is certainly the most
> interesting to artificial intelligence scientists and engineers.  From the
> practical perspective, it is the only type of intelligence which interests
> industry, from which the purse flows.

Who said what? -> ignored as unconstructive.

As for there being more money in Human Intelligence "simulators", I don't
think DARP (Defence Advanced Research Project) would agree. Their director
some years ago stated (something similar to):

	I would be glad to have a tank which could hunt down and kill
	other tanks as well as my cats hunt down birds.

Not that I agree even in part with Autonomus Weapons Systems, but the point
is clear. Defence spending is HUGE. Producing a tank based on Human
Intelligence is counter productive. Humans tend to moralise, desert or
defect. A certain amount of controlled animal wildness is critical in
military operations.

> Your reference to machine intelligence is a good one, but it is a mistake
> to overshadow human intelligence with it in defining artificial intelligence.

Human divinity? -> ignored as unconstructive.

> I did not say AI models human intelligence.  I was very specific to say that
> it models human reasoning methods.  I also believe our knowledge of human
> reasoning is limited, but that does not stop AI scientists and engineers
> from developing theories and applications.

Who said what? -> ignored as unconstructive.

No it does not, but it may put the blinkers on their thinking about other
possibilities, which is what this is really all about.

> >Artificial Intelligence means:
> >	An intelligent system designed by mankind to run on a man-made
> >	artifact, for example, a computer. The term Machine Intelligence
> >	is more succinct because it identifies the type of intelligence
> >	created.
> 
> Artificial intelligence is not a system, any more than computer science is
> a system.  Intelligent systems are the product of artificial intelligence
> METHODOLOGIES.  For example, an expert system is not "artificial
> intelligence", rather it is the result of applying artificial intelligence
> methodologies.

Granted. I should have said an "Artificial Intelligence System means:".
Sorry, but one can only edit one's own work so far.

Artificial Intelligence is the artibute that such a system would exibit.
Artificial Intelligence is also a field of research aimed at bringing this
about.

		Regards,

				Philip Nettleton,
				Department of Maths, Stats and Computing,
				The University of New England,
				Armidale,
				New South Wales,
				2351,
				AUSTRALIA.