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Article 1524 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,sci.philosophy.tech,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Daniel Dennett (was Re: Commenting on the pos
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Date: 23 Nov 91 02:50:20 GMT
References: <32905@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <1991Nov21.005355.5696@husc3.harvard.edu> <centaur.690849720@cc.gatech.edu>
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In article <centaur.690849720@cc.gatech.edu> centaur@terminus.gatech.edu (Anthony G. Francis) writes:
>zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:
>And on another note:
>>Once again, having spent the past fourteen years developing software, I'll
>>call you on this.  Where are those wonderful AI tools like the natural
>>language understanding 
> SHRLDU, MARGIE, SAM, PAM, ASK-SAM, FRUMP, AQUA, HEARSAY, HEARSAY II, and BORIS 

This is simply jive. These programs are, at best, experiments. They do not
understand natural language in any sense. They may work well on certain
examples, but that is all. 

>
>>                       and translation programs, 
> In current use, translating Japanese into English.
>
Reference? This would be truly wonderful. My guess is that programs based
on dictionary lookup and some statistical groupings of words and phrases
do better than any current AI programs. Prove me wrong.


>>                                                 expert systems that would
>>do medical and mechanical diagnostics as well as, or better than humans,
> MYCIN, which worked better than humans from the very start, was adapted to
> other domains, like Digital Equipment Corporations' system configurer, etc, ,

You must be joking. Please provide some evidence that myicin does better
than humans. I am willing to bet that you have none. As for the Digital
configuration program, it is well known that it has been shown to be
expensive, slow and a poor match for programs based on linear programming.

>
>>visual pattern recognition systems, 
> Still in development; Minsky had programs doing this, and we're doing it
> here, to a limited extent, at Georgia Tech ...

Won't hold my breath.

>>and countless other things that were promised so long ago?  
>
> How about learning programs that learn subtraction in the way that human
>  children do - even making the same mistakes? Ask John Anderson.
>
> How about meal-planning programs that can figure out what to do with leftover
>  rice? Or can adapt a meat meal for vegetarians, and learn from its mistakes
>  when broccoli gets soggy? Ask Janet Kolodner.
>
> How about route-planning programs that can learn maps and remember their past
>  attempts? Ask Ashok Goel.
>
> How about story-writing programs? Electrical design programs? Architectural
>  aids? Personalized newspapers? They're on the way. 

Oh yeah. Sure. Like the messiah. Like cold fusion. 

>Why are these wonderful programs not in the workforce yet? Because the 
>problem of AI is BIG. We only have the kernel of results that we need, and 
>we have years, decades further to go. Some AI applications are out in the
>field now - for instance, expert systems. Soon to follow will be case-based

Name one. Provide references to peer reviewed papers which show these
programs to outperform non-ai competitors.


