4 ms·
> Seems to me that there's a big difference now, in that even limited as it is, current AI advances are finding many important practical uses. Big difference?
by colllectorof 11y ago
> Seems to me that there's a big difference now, in that even limited as it is, current AI advances are finding many important practical uses.
Big difference? Do you seriously think that the entire field of artificial intelligence research produced nothing usable until today? For as long as there were AI algorithms there were also attempts to commercialize them (with varying success). The problem wasn't that all of those algorithms turned out to be useless, but rather the mismatch between hype and reality.
You should look into the history of expert systems for a classic example. With things being as they are, deep neural networks might very well go though the same cycle, which is not a good thing for the AI field in the long run.
Caution and skepticism are not the enemies of research and engineering. Hype is.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- mikeash 11y agoOf course it produced some usable stuff, but not to the same degree. Take your example of expert systems: as far as I know, they never really took off. There were attempts, and I'm sure there was some commercial success, but it remained a small niche. Compare to deep neural networks today, which are driving sales worth billions and have huge resources from major automakers, and no doubt many others. Is there a mismatch between the hype and the reality for the people funding this stuff? Certainly there's a mismatch for the general public, but they don't matter.
- colllectorof 11y ago> Take your example of expert systems: as far as I know, they never really took off. This is exactly why I said you should look into their history. They took off big time. Search Amazon for "expert systems" and observe how many books there are about the subject. They were used by large corporations, hospitals, universities and governments. They were the subject of a lot of research. There were countless startups based around the concept.
- colllectorof 11y agoI forgot to mention that in some fields (for example, medical diagnostics) expert systems outperformed human experts. In some fields they are still used today. (They aren't always labeled as "expert system", though.)