[LINK] Talking about AI

[Roger Clarke]

At 11:23 +1030 22/2/16, Glen Turner wrote:
>The essential argument was between artificial intelligence (John
>McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Herbert A Simon, based around MIT, CMU and
>Stanford SAIL) and computer augmentation of human thought (Vannevar
>Bush, Douglas Engelbart, based around Stanford's SRI and, later, Xerox
>PARC). There was some bad blood between the two groups; bear that in
>mind if you read historical documents.
>
>Good Old Fashioned AI is now widely seen as having limited success. The
>predictions of practitioners of the time now look a little fantastical.
>Many of the algorithms of the era are today learned and used without
>the related claims of 'intelligence'.
>
>Augmentation of human thought was a dramatic success. The smartphone is
>pretty much an implementation of Bush and Engelbart's wildest dreams.

All very nicely put.  (What else would I expect??).

I recently repeated my nasty comments about Simon, Minsky & co. (this time in the context of drones), and tried yet again with the 'complementary intelligence' meme:
http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/Drones-I.html#CSD

>In reaction against the reductionism of decision systems, decision support systems emerged. These effectively adopt the position that what human decision-makers need is not artificial, humanlike intelligence (which is already available in great quantity), but rather an alternative form of intelligence that humans exhibit far less, and that can be usefully referred to as 'complementary intelligence' (Clarke 1989): "Surely man and machine are natural complements: They assist one another" (Wyndham 1932). Together, the collaborative whole would be, in the words of Bolter (1986, p. 238) 'synthetic intelligence'.
>
>To function as a decision support system, however, software must produce information useful to human decision-makers (such as analyses of the apparent sensitivity of output variables to input variables). Alternatively, a decision support system might offer recommended actions, together with explanations of the rationale underlying the recommendations. But is this feasible?


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
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Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University