Researchers propose 'machine behavior' field could blend AI, social sciences

In 1969, artificial-intelligence pioneer and Nobel laureate Herbert Simon proposed a new science, one that approached the study of artificial objects just as one would study natural objects. "Natural science is knowledge about natural objects and phenomena," Simon wrote. "We ask whether there cannot also be'artificial' science -- knowledge about artificial objects and phenomena." Now, 50 years later, a team of researchers from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, the University of California, San Diego, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and other institutions is renewing that call. In a recent paper published in the journal Nature, the researchers proposed a new, interdisciplinary field -- machine behavior -- that would study artificial intelligence through the lens of biology, economics, psychology, and other behavioral and social sciences.