Lecture 9 - data-ppf/data-ppf.github.io GitHub Wiki

This week's reading is about another present-shaping, history-changing innovation from Alan Turing (in addition to computation itself): artificial intelligence.

The readings are organized chronologically rather than from secondary to primary, in part because the first -- Turing's 1950 work -- is so well-written and accessible.

  1. Alan Turing: "Computing machinery and intelligence"" Mind 59, no. 236 (1950): 433. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing_Machinery_and_Intelligence ) In these few pages, Turing lays out a plan for what would later be called AI, and thinks through the necessary hardware, the computation, the capabilities, and even many of the critiques and doubts people would raise about the possibility of AI.

There are two ways to interpret the many connections between this almost 70-year old document and the present: the first is to say "wow! Turing was so prescient to have realized back then everything that would happen for the next 50 years!" The second is to say "wow! For the next 50 years all people did was execute the plan laid out in this document!" Either way you can see in this document what would be the future (and our present!)

questions to ask yourself:

  • What was "the Turing test" initially? How did this relate to Turing's biography?
  • What objections did he expect against AI? Did he address them well?
  • Can you tell that there are multiple ways to achieve AI in this work?
  1. Pamela McCorduck (2009). Machines who think: A personal inquiry into the history and prospects of artificial intelligence. AK Peters/CRC Press., Chapter 5, "The Dartmouth Conference". McCorduck is an unusual secondary source in that she knows personally almost all the people she writes about -- unparalleled access to the minds and interests of the participants.

questions to ask yourself:

  • What were the interests and goals of the participants?
  1. McCarthy, John, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon. "A proposal for the Dartmouth summer research project on artificial intelligence, august 1955." (1955). This is the only reading this term that is actually a funding proposal, not a scholarly work, but it has tremendous historical impact. It first introduces the phrase "artificial intelligence" itself. By Macarthy's own admission:

"I invented the term artificial intelligence. I invented it because ...we were trying to get money for a summer study in 1956...aimed at the long term goal of achieving human-level intelligence." -- JCM, during the Lighthill debate [1]

There are two ways to interpret the many connections between this 64-year old document and the present: the first is to say "wow! They were so prescient to have realized back then everything that would happen for the next 50 years!" The second is to say "wow! For the next 50 years all people did was execute the plan laid out in this document!" Either way you can see in this document what would be the future (and our present!)

questions to ask yourself:

  • What part of their goal overlaps with what we now think of as AI?
  • What parts relate to CS as a field?
  • Which goals have we not yet achieved?
  1. Professor Sir James Lighthill, FRS. "Artificial intelligence: a paper symposium. In: Science Research Council, 1973." (1974): 317-322.

The backlash against AI -- sometimes called "the first AI winter" -- accelerated in the early 1970s. A well-documented example from the UK is "the Lighthill report". There are copious assets from and reactions to this report, and it is a great illustration of how incumbents in the scientific establishment, including Lighthill himself [2], had a role in smiting the upstart field of AI. If you have time I strongly encourage you to watch the videos (see "6", below) of the televised debate itself, just amazing stuff, featuring a who's who of British AI work [3] along with McCarthy himself, trying to defend the nascent field. In prior years we've assigned the report along with reactions; please for Tuesday just read the report itself. A note: Don't expect it to make sense. It's a rant by someone who had been cramming on AI for 3 months before pontificating. He gets plenty wrong.

questions to ask yourself:

  • What did Lighthill get right? What did he get wrong?
  • How well do you think he argued against AI as a field?

Optional extras for further reading

  1. Pamela McCorduck (2009). Machines who think: A personal inquiry into the history and prospects of artificial intelligence. AK Peters/CRC Press., Chapter 9, "L’Affaire Dreyfus"

The backlash wasn't just in the UK, of course. A prominent example is the book Dreyfus, Hubert L. "What computers can't do." (1972), discussed at length by Pamela McCorduck.

  1. The full debate Lighthill, J. "BBC TV–June 1973 ‘Debate at the Royal Institution" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03p2CADwGF8

References:

[1] Lighthill, J. "BBC TV–June 1973 ‘Debate at the Royal Institution" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyU9pm1hmYs&t=266s , 3'00"

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lighthill, who was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucasian_Professor_of_Mathematics )

[3] One of the audience members called upon to speak ( https://youtu.be/3GZWFnWOqkA?t=407 ) is Chris Strachey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Strachey, whose whole life story is amazing, including

readings (2018-03-19)

We’ll be following the second major thread born at Bletchley park; in addition to the thread from Bletchley to Bayesianism, there’s the thread from Bletchley to artificial intelligence. Specifically, we’ll read 4 documents, spanning approx 25 years, defining the first spring, summer, and winter of artificial intelligence.

1950: Turing’s ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’ defines the Turing test (“The Imitation Game”) and the program for artificial intelligence which the next half-century followed.

1955: The proposal documents for the 1956 ‘Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence’, which gathered many who would go on to define the field. Shannon, from this week’s reading, makes an appearance here. This document coined the term AI.

1973: The ‘Lighthill Report’ begins the first AI winter by casting doubt on the AI research program. Don Mitchie, who worked with Turing and Good and is mentioned in this week’s readings, also appears as a AI defender, along with McCarthy, who coined the term in the first place.

1974: McCarthy reflects on the 1973 debate, and what was learned about AI 1950-1974.

BONUS/OPTIONAL (but fun!!!)

Watch the original video of the debate itself from 1973!!! Available either in 6 youtubes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yReDbeY7ZMU or as 1 long video: http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/events/lighthill1973/1973-BBC-Lighthill-Controversy.mov

Features comments from Strachey and Lighthill's accent

2017 discussion

Turing (1950)

Important historical note on Turing Test:

  • As Presented: highly gendered (man or woman?)
  • Modern Conception: free of gender (human or not?)

Turing test is operational, freed of philosophical concerns and social constructs

Chinese Room Argument (CRA) Caveat:

  • Someone rotely doing the instructions cannot be said to be thinking, but passes Turing test!
  • Conclusion: Turing test isn't what you think it is

Was Turing prescient or has everyone just been following Turing since 1950?

Lots of modern ideas: Randomness in Computation, Chaos Theory, etc.

Dartmouth Report (1955)

Invention of term Artificial Intelligence

Surprisingly economical for birthing of field! ($13,200 in 1955 US Dollars < $200,000 in 2017 US Dollars) (cf.: $20 million for machine translation by 1960)

Lighthill and Friends (not) (1973)

Lighthill is Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (others: Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking)

  • Trying to keep money with his friends!
  • Intimidated by amount of money in the US going to this new-fangled thing

His categorization is pretty terrible:

  • A: Advanced Automation
  • B: Building Robots
  • C: Computer-based CNS research (Neuroscience)

Lighthill arguing that people only getting results out of machine learning what (human intuition) they're putting into it

Dissecting field by claiming A and C from control theory and psychology whereas B was just bad

McCarthy Response: My field isn't within those! General problem planning and goal seeking Michie Response: Come see my robots, they do decently