Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!wuarchive!mit-eddie!bbn.com!mips2!bubba!sje From: sje@bubba.ma30.bull.com (Steven J. Edwards) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: What is your favorite definition of AI? Message-ID: Date: 5 Mar 91 19:01:51 GMT References: <1991Mar4.192154.2209@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> Sender: @mips2.cr.bull.com Organization: Bull HN, Worldwide Information Systems, Billerica, Mass., USA Lines: 33 In-Reply-To: leekin@kira.msu.edu's message of 4 Mar 91 19:21:54 GMT In article <1991Mar4.192154.2209@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> leekin@kira.msu.edu (Kin-Wing Edwin Lee) writes: > From: leekin@kira.msu.edu (Kin-Wing Edwin Lee) > Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy > Organization: Michigan State University, College of Engineering > > I have encountered many, many times with questions like what is > AI, either from technical or nontechnical people. > > For my classmates, I would just tell them to take a "intro" course > on AI, but what if you need to explain to someone in 2 minutes > what generally AI is, what is its potential and how does it change > people 's life, in a accurate and concrete sense, so normal people > would not find it hard to understand and people with technical > background(e.g.CS student) would not think the explanations are > too vague. In 1977 I took the AI grad course at MSU from Carl V. Page, and in the first day of class he gave his quick, layperson's definition of AI. He claimed that the field should really be called "IA" for "Intelligence Amplification". The analogy is: organic brain : AI :: muscle : mechanically-based assistance The idea being that all AI to date and in the near future has found applications only as assistants to "higher" thought processes, and not as standalone applications. AI amplifies the ability of a mind a way similar to an automobile amplifies walking ability. == Steven J. Edwards Bull HN Information Systems Inc. == == (508) 294-3484 300 Concord Road MS 820A == == sje@bubba.ma30.bull.com Billerica, MA 01821 USA == "That Government which Governs the Least, Governs Best." -- Thomas Jefferson