The AI Game of Thrones

The AI field is plagued by irrational optimism and irrational despair. In 1973, Sir James Lighthill was asked to compile a report on the then-present state of artificial intelligence. His report criticized the hype surrounding artificial intelligence research, suggesting that AI's best algorithms would always fail at solving real world problems and could really only work for solving "baby" problems. His report followed almost twenty-five years of fervent research into human-like algorithms. The AI "summer" between the 1950s and 1970s saw DARPA investing millions into undirected research that touched on natural language processing.