The Eric Normand Podcast Generality in Artificial Intelligence
Jun 7, 2021
Explore the history of artificial intelligence through John McCarthy's groundbreaking ideas. Discover the evolution of logical systems and the challenges of generality in AI. Learn how declarative beliefs can transform AI programming, illustrated by a comparison of recipe styles. Delve into the problems of logical frameworks and the struggle with human-like reasoning. Uncover the complexities of language and the influence of loss aversion on decision-making. Finally, reflect on AI's impact on concepts of intelligence and our understanding of humanity.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Generality Problem in AI
- AI has long struggled with lack of generality, unable to easily adapt small changes without major rewrites.
- Logical systems valid for small cases explode in complexity and don't scale well to general AI problems.
Common Sense Knowledge Challenge
- Creating a general database of common sense knowledge usable by any AI program remains a core challenge.
- Expressing this knowledge in a universal language is key to achieving AI generality.
Peanut Butter Sandwich Instructions
- Eric shares a childhood exercise of writing step-by-step instructions to make a peanut butter sandwich.
- Declarative statements can convey the same knowledge more generally, trusting the listener’s reasoning.
