Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!orc!bbn.com!BKort
From: BKort@bbn.com (Barry Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: What AI is exactly.
Message-ID: <59525@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 17 Sep 90 16:44:39 GMT
Sender: news@bbn.com
Organization: BBN Labs
Lines: 46
References:<3797@se-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> <3543@gara.une.oz.au> <10072@goofy.Apple.COM> <5907@plains.NoDak.edu>

In article <5907@plains.NoDak.edu> person@plains.NoDak.edu (Brett G. 
Person) writes:

> Ok, I've thought about this for a while.  Doesn't the term intelligent
> connote a sense of "understanding" in terms of interest?

To my mind, an intelligent system must not only be able to think and solve 
problems, it must also be able to learn and evolve over time.  The 
frontiers of learning are the focus of one's interests.  The internal 
representations of the acquired knowledge (corresponding to our mental 
models) reflect one's understanding or comprehension.  (The etymology of 
"comprehend" is instructive:  it means "to capture with".  We capture 
knowledge with models and other symbolic representations.)

> I mean wouldn't a program have to be aware of it's surroundings and
> interactions with it's own environment to be considered intelligent?  We
> consider most live things (animals, birds etc) to be intelligent because
> they are actively involved with with their environments and make 
> adjustments accordingly.

Awareness of surroundings gives rise to consciousness.  First, a system 
needs sensors to gather raw data.  Then it needs to interpret sensory data 
and integrate it into a structured representation of the external state of 
affairs.  These representations could be models or frames, or other forms 
of knowledge representation.

> Curiosity would also factor in here. And just how the heck would you 
> make a program curious?  Could you give it a desire to learn? Could you 
> make it wonder about the world around it?

Curiosity is a key emotion of a learning system.  It goes along with 
related emotions such as interest, fascination, boredom, anxiety, 
satisfaction, and confidence.

>    Our thoughts are essentially the independent stringing together of 
> random pieces of information to a coherent conclusion.

Thoughts are sentences we say to ourself.  When the pieces of information 
are thrown together haphazardly, we move from disciplined thought to 
dreaming and flights of fancy and fantasy.


Barry Kort
Visiting Scientist
BBN Labs
Cambridge, MA