6 ms·
SHRDLU
- gattilorenz 4y agoI recently got the Java version running under Windows XP, upped a bit the size of the window and posted a demo interaction: https://youtu.be/lzz3qUawahg https://youtu.be/lzz3qUawahg The text-only system contains the original code partially converted from MacLisp to GNU CLisp, and runs (albeit with an error that can be skipped) in a modern CLisp version. But it's still buggy[1] and sometimes hangs, it would be great if someone could set up a containerized MacLisp version on a PDP6 emulator. [1] SHRDLU was never per se robust, but in this case there are clearly bugs from the conversion
- rjsw 4y agoIt should be fairly easy to get the original code working in the MIT CADR emulator, could even add a GUI.
- DonaldFisk 4y agoIt was written in 1970, in an early version of MACLISP, to run on an early version of ITS. It would require a fair amount of work to port the code to Lisp Machine Lisp so that it could run on the CADR emulator.
- gattilorenz 4y agoSome (relatively successful) attempts were made to run it in an emulated PDP: https://github.com/PDP-10/its/issues/147 https://github.com/PDP-10/its/issues/147
- jasfi 4y agoIf nothing else the program inspired people to think about AI and NLP. I'm working on Natural Language Understanding (NLU) myself (https://lxagi.com/ https://lxagi.com/).
- imranq 4y agoAlso check out the Stanford NLU course about this topic: cs224u.stanford.edu There's a section on Shrdlu there too
- pde3 4y agoAnd then check out this very cool project from six years ago, which uses a block-stacking game inspired by Shrdlu but learns whatever language you choose to teach it instructions with :) https://shrdlurn.sidaw.xyz/ https://shrdlurn.sidaw.xyz/
- taneq 4y agoAh, back in the days when we thought AI was a Simple Matter Of Programming and that logic and analysis were fundamentally harder problems than perception, localisation, cognition and sentience (whatever that particular begged question even means). Just add a couple of feedback loops, if they're strange enough it might work. Edit: Fun fact, the Winograd Schema Challenge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winograd_schema_challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winograd_schema_challenge) is named after Terry Winograd, the author of SHRDLDU.
- the_biot 4y agoI recall some company or project in the late 70s or 80s putting together a massive database of concepts and how they relate to each other, i.e. a semantic word database. Wish I could remember the name, I know it's on wikipedia somewhere. I always thought the effort must have been related to code like this. This simple language interpreter can do lots of things, but only in its small world of boxes and pyramids. It follows that if you teach it a bunch of things and how they relate to each other, you'd create an intelligent computer. Instead that whole field was dropped, presumably because it didn't work, and eventually neural networks started to be thought of as the next generation of soon-to-be-AI systems. But it's pretty apparent by now that things like GPT-3 are hollow shells, good at emulating some very specific things humans can do, but there's nothing remotely like intelligence behind it. I wonder if in 20 years we'll look back at this as another dead end on the road to AI.
- handojin 4y agoCyc? It's still a going concern - www.cyc.com
- dang 4y agoRelated: How SHRDLU got its name (2003) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24102610 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24102610 - Aug 2020 (16 comments) The SHR-DLU AI Natural Language Processing System (1970) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21880043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21880043 - Dec 2019 (1 comment) SHRDLU resurrection - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19138825 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19138825 - Feb 2019 (4 comments) SHRDLU – a program for understanding natural language (1968) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17028731 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17028731 - May 2018 (1 comment) SHRDLU (1971) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14351485 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14351485 - May 2017 (30 comments) Shrdlu resurrection – A 1970 artificial intelligence system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8927043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8927043 - Jan 2015 (2 comments) SHRDLU - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8219409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8219409 - Aug 2014 (19 comments)
- sema4hacker 4y agoWinograd copied some of his page from the original resurrection page now at https://sites.google.com/site/masteraddressfile/misc/shrdlu https://sites.google.com/site/masteraddressfile/misc/shrdlu
- pxeger1 4y agoI presume the title is related to the list of most frequently used letters in English, etaoinSHRDLUcmwfgypbvkjxqz?
- aasasd 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etaoin_shrdlu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etaoin_shrdlu
- drewda 4y agoI think there's an interesting story to be told in how Winograd started with "pure AI" approaches to language understanding like SHRDLU, gave it up in frustration, and then helped to found the field of human-computer interaction. In some ways, HCI has much more modest and applied goals than AI. In other ways, HCI has had a much larger impact on many more computer users and developers in recent decades. Stanford's Symbolic Systems program effectively became the training ground for Google product managers and other consumer tech companies with strong UI/UX roles.
- salgernon 4y agoIt doesn't work anymore - but for a while you could ask Siri (also via Stanford) "do you know shrdlu" (you'd have to type it into the correction box) and it would respond with something to the effect: "Wasn't SHRDLU crushed by a blue pyramid?"