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Article 7629 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rudis+@cs.cmu.edu (Rujith S DeSilva)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: It is AI when...
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Date: 12 Nov 92 23:37:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.BxMMyp.7pE.1
References: <1992Nov10.204536.16987@psych.toronto.edu> <1992Nov12.202205.23462@cs.ucf.edu>
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In article <1992Nov12.202205.23462@cs.ucf.edu> clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas
Clarke) writes:
>If you can discern how it works it's not truly intelligent behavior.  You'll
>know its truly intelligent when you can't figure out how it works.

Why so?  You seem to be ascribing a sort of mystical attribute to
intelligence.  Could you give the reasons why intelligence cannot be
understood, and its workings discerned?

As I'm costing the net hundreds if not thousands of dollars with this posting,
let me use it to advance the definition of intelligence used by (and I believe
originated by) a former advisor of mine, Allen Newell.  Loosely paraphrased:

        A system is intelligent to the extent it chooses actions to attain
        its goals using all the knowledge it has available.

A common objection to this definition is that `But it would make a thermostat
intelligent!'  I believe that the correct response is `Yes, a thermostat is
intelligent, in its own little limited sense.  Given only the current
temperature as input, nobody and nothing could do a better job of maintaining
the current temperature.'

The definition becomes more interesting when you apply to a more complex
system, such as a man trying to buy some pasta in a super-market, given his
wife's preferences, the availability of coupons on some brands, and his wish
to get home before it starts raining.

Rujith de Silva.
Carnegie Mellon.


