The Terminology of Artificial Intelligence Part 2

Professor Edward Feigenbaum, while explaining the meaning of Al to a distinguished and perplexed scientific review panel for a Department of Defense AI application development program in the late 1970s commented, "If it works, it isn't AI." Because AI has been a subject of considerable interest, a number of suppliers and developers of software products have embraced the technology and offer products or demonstrations that "contain AI" It is possible that some of this labeling might be controversial among those who have worked in the field for some time. Since most AI appears as a software of some sort, many practitioners of conventional software development can recognize aspects of AI programs that could be accomplished with conventional technology. An industrial engineer replaced an electromechanical controller on a large machine with an electronic controller which included a CRT display. Upon being told the rudimentary aspects of AI technology, the industrial engineer suddenly exclaimed, "Wow, I've been doing AI all along!"