History
Development of AI theory
Much of the (original) focus
of artificial intelligence research
draws from an experimental approach to psychology, and emphasizes
what may be called linguistic intelligence (best exemplified
in the Turing test).
Approaches to artificial
intelligence that do not focus on linguistic intelligence
include robotics and collective
intelligence approaches, which focus on active manipulation
of an environment, or consensus decision making, and draw
from biology and political science when seeking models of
how "intelligent" behavior is organized.
Artificial intelligence theory also draws from animal studies,
in particular with insects, which are easier to emulate
as robots (see artificial life), as well as animals with
more complex cognition. AI researchers argue that animals,
which are simpler than humans, ought to be considerably
easier to mimic. But satisfactory computational models for
animal intelligence are not available.
Seminal papers advancing the concept of machine intelligence
include A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous
Activity (1943), by Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts, and
On Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950), by Alan
Turing, and Man-Computer Symbiosis by J.C.R. Licklider.
See cybernetics and Turing test for further discussion.
There were also early papers which denied the possibility
of machine intelligence on logical or philosophical grounds
such as Minds, Machines and Gšdel (1961) by John Lucas.
With the development of practical techniques based on AI
research, advocates of AI have argued that opponents of
AI have repeatedly changed their position on tasks such
as computer chess or speech recognition that were previously
regarded as "intelligent" in order to deny the accomplishments
of AI. They point out that this moving of the goalposts
effectively defines "intelligence" as "whatever humans can
do that machines cannot".
John von Neumann (quoted by E.T. Jaynes) anticipated this
in 1948 by saying, in response to a comment at a lecture
that it was impossible for a machine to think: "You insist
that there is something a machine cannot do. If you will
tell me precisely what it is that a machine cannot do, then
I can always make a machine which will do just that!". Von
Neumann was presumably alluding to the Church-Turing thesis
which states that any effective procedure can be simulated
by a (generalized) computer.
In 1969 McCarthy and Hayes started the discussion about
the frame problem with their essay, "Some Philosophical
Problems from the Standpoint of Artificial Intelligence".
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