I'm not an AI student myself (I do CS, but with an interest in AI and probabilistic algorithms) and since I'm from a younger generation most of the "new" AI stu

I'm not an AI student myself (I do CS, but with an interest in AI and probabilistic algorithms) and since I'm from a younger generation most of the "new" AI stuff like neural networks, evolutionary computing, etc. wasn't that new any more when it got taught. But "classical AI" (as in symbolic AI and rule-based systems) always struck me as rather dumb and inefficient after being shown the power of probabilistic systems like EC and neural networks. So in that sense I don't think classical AI will never make a comeback, and I'm convinced this is probably a good thing. I mean, the only example we have of solving extremely complex problems is nature, and nature just doesn't work with symbolic system and rule-based inference. It uses probabilistic systems which interact with each other in feedback loops. I, for one, welcome our new non-deterministic overlords.