Xref: utzoo comp.society.futures:388 comp.ai:1492
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!cornell!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!rwojcik
From: rwojcik@bcsaic.UUCP (Rick Wojcik)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures,comp.ai
Subject: Re: The future of AI [was Re: Time Magazine -- Computers of the Future]
Message-ID: <4640@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: 29 Mar 88 17:02:39 GMT
References: <8803270154.AA08607@bu-cs.bu.edu> <962@daisy.UUCP>
Reply-To: rwojcik@bcsaic.UUCP (Rick Wojcik)
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 32
Summary: Yes, Virginia, there is a need for AI...

In article <962@daisy.UUCP> klee@daisy.UUCP (Ken Lee) writes:
>
>Is AI just too expensive and too complicated for practical use?  I
>spent 3 years in the field and I'm beginning to think the answer is
>mostly yes.  In my opinion, all working AI programs are either toys or
>could have been developed much more cheaply using conventional
>techniques.
>
Your posting was clearly intended to provoke, but I'll try to keep the
flames low :-).  Please try to remember that AI is a vast subject area.
It is expensive because it requires a great deal of expertise in language,
psychology, philosophy, etc.--not just programming skills.  It is also a
very high risk area, as anyone can see.  But the payoff can be
tremendous.  Moreover, your opinion that conventional techniques can
replace AI is ludicrous.  Consider the area of natural language.  What
conventional techniques that you know of can extract information from
natural language text or translate a passage from English to French?
Maybe you believe that we should stop all research on robotics.  If not,
would you like to explain how conventional programming can be used get
robots to see objects in the real world?  But maybe we should give up on
the whole idea.  We can replace robots with humans.  Would you like to
volunteer for the bomb squad :-)?  In the development stage, AI is expensive,
but in the long term it is cost effective.  Your pessimism about the field
seems to be based on the failure of expert systems to live up to the hype.
The future of AI is going to be full of unrealistic hype and disappointing
failures.  But the demand for AI is so great that we have no choice but to
push on.
-- 
Rick Wojcik   csnet:  rwojcik@boeing.com	   
              uucp:  {uw-june  uw-beaver!ssc-vax}!bcsaic!rwojcik 
address:  P.O. Box 24346, MS 7L-64, Seattle, WA 98124-0346
phone:    206-865-3844