I Had a Dream: AAAI Presidential Address

Twenty-five years ago I had a dream, a daydream, if you will. A dream shared with many of you. I dreamed of a special kind of computer, which had eyes and ears and arms and legs, in addition to its "brain." I did not dream that this new computer friend would be a means of making money for me or my employer or a help for my country - though I loved my country then and still do, and I have no objection to making money. I did not even dream of such a worthy cause as helping the poor and handicapped of the world using this marvelous new machine. No, my dream was filled with the wild excitement of seeing a machine act like a human being, at least in many ways.