Artificial intelligence, commonly abbreviated as AI, also known as Machine Intelligence, was defined as "The science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by humans" by Marvin Minsky in 1968. To date, much of the work in this field has been done with computer simulations of intelligence based on predefined sets of rules.
A seminal paper advancing the concept of machine intelligence is On Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950), by Alan Turing. See Turing Test for further discussion. There have also been papers which deny the possibility of machine intelligence on logical or philosophical grounds such as Minds, Machines and Gödel (1961) by John Lucas.
The Loebner Prize competition has been claimed to be "the first formal instantiation of the Turing Test." Even so, many computer scientists reject any validity in the test, claiming that most of the entrants are formula based gimmicks. Among the criticisms made, is that the target (of a computer to be able to reply indistinguishably from a real person) is much too far fetched. Anybody attempting it, they claim, would be forced to use formulaic means (such as a database of ready-made replies) in order to win. Despite the publicity for AI generated by the Loebner prize some even see it as detrimental to the field. The argument is that it focuses resources too much on trying to emulate humans, rather than trying innovative approaches with more easily obtainable targets.
Whilst progress towards the ultimate goal of human-like intelligence has been slow, many spinoffs have come in the process. Notable examples include the languages LISP and Prolog, which were heavily used for AI research (in Prolog's case, invented for the purpose) but are now used for non-AI tasks.
Fields in AI:
- Knowledge representation
- Machine learning
- Machine planning
- Neural network
- Expert system
- Genetic programming
- Genetic algorithm
- Computational linguistics
- Computer vision
- Robotics
Apparent 'Artificial intelligence' programs:
See also:
- Artificial intelligence projects
- computer science
- cognitive science
- consciousness
- Searle's Chinese room
- semantics
- The Singularity
Loebner Prize website at: http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html
For the film see Artificial Intelligence film