Artificial Intelligence Meets Natural Stupidity is a paper by AI researcher Drew McDermott which is funny and nicely written. McDermott published it in 1976: when, as he explains in his introduction, hacker culture had combined with the need to explore weird ideas, thereby crippling AI's self-discipline. To keep AI credible, he says, we must stop repeating mistakes caused by sloppy thinking. The paper ridicules three of these mistakes, which McDermott admits he suffers from himself. The part I enjoyed most is the schematic chronicle of a researcher who acts as though identifying the shortcomings of version I of a program is equivalent to having written version II, and thereby ends up inhibiting further research. I believe this still happens, 33 years on; and I don't believe it happens only in AI. So I'd like to recommend the paper to everyone who programs a new way to solve a problem.

November 22, 2009
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/artificial-intelligence-meets-natural-st/228701343

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