Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!occrsh!uokmax!apple!usc!wuarchive!uunet!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: What is an alien intelligence?
Message-ID: <3640@gara.une.oz.au>
Date: 11 Sep 90 07:23:04 GMT
References: <34175@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> <25392@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <4123@servax0.essex.ac.uk>
Organization: University of New England, Armidale, Australia
Lines: 49

In article <4123@servax0.essex.ac.uk>, dewhn@Sol24.essex.ac.uk (Dewhurst N E J) writes:
> Reading all this raises a question: I'd be very grateful if one of the
> AI types reading this could answer it. When you talk about "intelligence"
> in the context of AI, what are you looking for? When dolphins are said to be
> "extremely intelligent", I'd take it to mean that their brains work
> similarly to (if less well than) our own. But what's written above
> suggests the poster had something different in mind. What? 

The problem in all the debates so far is that people have been personalising
intelligence, saying that it a characteristic of human beings. The test for
an "Intelligent System" that we are working on attempts to impersonalise
our appraisal of intelligence by reducing it into components, ie, learning,
autonomy, reasoning and self-awareness. When the test is applied to humans
we can clearly say: "Yes, we are intelligent". When applied to other animals
we can start to say things like: "Yes, a cat is intelligent", unless you've
never had a kitten, in which case you may say some of the stupid things some
people choose to post as news.

> Similarly: when you talk about an "intelligent machine", you're
> presumably talking about a system that behaves in a certain way. 
> But how can you detect its "intelligence", other than by 
> observing that behaviour, and squaring it with what you know about 
> the workings of your own head? And given that, how does the
> idea of a "non-humanlike intelligence" make sense?

If we now have a machine, a man-made artifact, which is claimed to be
intelligent, you can start making observations and doing tests to
determine whether it learns, is autonomous, reasons and is self-aware. You
may not understand anything of "how it works" but, after a while, you
should be able to say, "yes" or "no" to whether it is intelligent.

The ONLY way to detect intelligence is through observation and testing with
a specific criteria in mind. You may say, "But I'm intelligent", but in
all honesty, from my point of view, it's all hearsay :-).

> Sorry if this is a naive or stupid question. Feel free to
> ignore. :-)

Never be afraid to ask a sensible question.

			Regards,

						Philip Nettleton,
						Tutor in Computer Science,
						University of New England,
						Armidale,
						New South Wales,
						2351,
						AUSTRALIA.