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Tuesday, February 26, 2002
http://www.techreview.com/articles/hiltzik0302.asp A.I. Reboots Technology Review, March 2002 Michael Hiltzik "Artificial intelligence" used to mean robots that think like people; now it means software for rejecting junk e-mail. Low expectations could yield better applications, sooner. It was the spring of 2000. The scene was a demonstration of an advanced artificial-intelligence project for the U.S. Department of Defense; the participants were a programmer, a screen displaying an elaborate windowed interface and an automated “intelligence”—a software application animating the display. The subject, as the programmer typed on his keyboard, was anthrax. Instantly the machine responded: “Do you mean Anthrax (the heavy-metal band), anthrax (the bacterium) or anthrax (the disease)?” “The bacterium,” was the typed answer, followed by the instruction, “Comment on its toxicity to people.” “I assume you mean people (homo sapiens),” the system responded, reasoning, as it informed its programmer, that asking about People magazine “would not make sense.”...
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