What Is AI, Anyway?

In this article, the scientific and technological goals of artificial intelligence, and a proposal of ten fundamental problems in AI research are discussed This article is an introduction to Scientific DataLink's microfiche publication of the Yale AI technical reports In this context, examples of research conducted at the Yale Artificial Intelligence Project relating to each of the research problems is presented. Even AI'S practitioners are somewhat confused about what AI really is. A great many AI researchers believe strongly that knowledge representations used in AI programs must conform to previously established formalisms and logics, or the field is unprincipled and ad hoc. Many AI researchers believe that they know how the answer will turn out even before they have figured out what exactly the questions are. They know that some mathematical formalism or other must be the best way to express the contents of the knowledge which people have.