jwzFeb 20, 2023

The best description I've ever heard of AI is the following. I heard this in the 80s, and it has held up since:

AI is magic.

1: You see a magic trick. You are amazed by the magic.

2: You are shown how the trick works. You are impressed by the technique.

3: You learn how to perform the trick. Now it's not magic, it's sleight-of-hand, or mirrors, or misdirection.

This is why "AI" is always bullshit: once you understand it, it's not AI any more, it's something else.

Show threadjwz

Some things that used to be AI but aren't any more:

- production systems
- expert systems
- semantic networks
- theorem provers
- Bayesian inference
- putting parentheses around data and calling it "knowledge"
- computational linguistics
- genetic algorithms
- machine translation

Feb 20, 2023 at 7:50pmWeb
Show threadMartin Vermeer (not Jesus)Feb 20, 2023
@jwz Remembering how ~1977 I got a Hewlett-Packard programmable desktop calculator to play naughts and crosses at a good amateur level. The memory was just not quite big enough to contain the whole programme, and one number transfer step had to be done by hand... probably qualified as AI at the time.
Show threadMike MolFeb 20, 2023
@jwz To paraphrase Arthur C. Clark, any sufficiently advanced computational technology is [indistinguishable from] "AI".
Show thread8Feb 21, 2023
@mikemol @jwz to paraphrase Paul Simon, an agent (A) offering an exchange of familiar companionship for physical protection from another (B) also can be called "Al".
Show threadMike MolFeb 21, 2023
@Octarine @jwz I can call you DALLE, DALLE, you can call me, well, you can call me AI.
Show threadPat RondonFeb 20, 2023
@jwz This is why I like "heuristics" as a term for the category much better than "AI," which is wide open to shifting (mis)interpretations.
Show threadRichard MillerFeb 20, 2023
@jwz - action items
Show threadALFeb 21, 2023
@jwz yea, I"ve lost track of which generation this is but its always seems to be oversold. Back in the day, I had to give lessons to upper management about the difference between artificial intelligence and psychic power.😜 everything was going to be solved by AI.
I still say it a glorified search engine.
Show threadrikFeb 21, 2023
@jwz
We should add SCRIPTS to the list. Roger Shank, RIP.