Newsgroups: comp.ai.games
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!satisfied.apocalypse.org!news.mathworks.com!news.kei.com!wang!news
From: bruck@actcom.co.il (Uri Bruck)
Subject: Re: What is "real" AI??? (Was: AI routines for RPG game?)
Organization: ACTCOM - Internet Services in Israel
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 1995 23:23:19 GMT
Message-ID: <D5ywyv.9C@actcom.co.il>
References: <D5E5oo.GDw@emr1.emr.ca> <SMISHRA.95Mar14151317@kiwi.acns.nwu.edu> <1995Mar15.092901.29098@news.unige.ch> <SMISHRA.95Mar15123306@kiwi.acns.nwu.edu> <3k9sl5$avb@Venus.mcs.com> <activisD5nrr4.qB@netcom.com>
Sender: news@wang.com
Lines: 21


: Consider the example of writing a program that plays a killer game of chess.
: 10 years ago this was considered `hard;' 20 years ago it was considered an
: exercise in more-or-less `pure' AI.  A programmer 20 years ago might very well
: have chosen to write in Lisp in order to take advantage of Lisp's very
: orthogonal set of operators over very flexible data structures, just because
: they weren't sure how best to represent the game's state space.

The problem of computer chess was originally selected as a tool by Shanon 
in Bell laboratories for testing his theories on complex project management.
Shanon considered chess a good model because in that game one often has 
to plan ahead on paralel paths, and create subgoals during the course
of the game in order to achieve some known end goal. It was also an easier
example than real life, ann idealised case, if you will, because
it has a finite number of variables (with complex interactions though)
clearly defined rules, and clear cut test if success.
It was never seriously taken as an ultimate test for AI, except in the popular
literature.
	Uri Bruck
bruck@actcom.co.il

