Getting Back to "The Very Idea"

For many years, the very idea of artificial intelligence has been provocative and exciting. However, with a continually increasing focus on specialized subareas and somewhat narrow technical problems (both of which are inevitable and in many ways healthy), we may be torpedoing our core research agenda: the creation of a true synthetic intelligence. I reflect briefly on the essential interdependencies of the components of intelligence, the important roles of architecture and integration, and the need to get back to thinking about the very idea of AI. AAAI's role in the field has evolved over the years, but after a quarter-century as an organization, and a half-century as a field, it seems like AAAI is in an ideal situation to bring AI as a whole back to its roots. In 1985, the philosopher John Haugeland wrote a thoughtprovoking treatise on AI that he titled Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea.