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When it was published, A* was considered within the field of AI. The paper[0]'s authors were from Stanford's AI group. The "AI effect"[1] describes how the fie

by Ukv 3y ago

When it was published, A* was considered within the field of AI. The paper[0]'s authors were from Stanford's AI group. The "AI effect"[1] describes how the field tends to get left with only the cutting-edge research. [0]: http://ai.stanford.edu/~nilsson/OnlinePubs-Nils/PublishedPapers/astar.pdf http://ai.stanford.edu/~nilsson/OnlinePubs-Nils/PublishedPap... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect

T-A 3y ago
By way of [1], here [2] is a paper about A* also posted under CS/AI. It introduces "Q* search, a search algorithm that uses deep Q-networks to guide search" and uses it "to solve the Rubik's cube", the thing which Gary Marcus complained about OpenAI not having done with a neural network in 2019. As pointed out by techbro92 [3] the authors do not seem to be affiliated with OpenAI, but AFAIK nobody claimed that OpenAI invented Q*. It's not hard to imagine OpenAI trying it out with their Rubik-solving robot hand and then starting to think about other things it might be applied to. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38395959 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38395959 [2] https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.04518 https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.04518 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38398243 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38398243
TeMPOraL 3y ago
I still think the "AI effect" is bullshit. A* was/is AI under a different meaning - it's what understood as "AI" in computer games, where the point is for the computer opponent to pretend to be smarter than a brick, and literally any trick, cheat or heuristic used to do that is part of "AI". A*? Obviously AI. Random walk? Yes. Fuzzy logic? Yes. State machines? Yes.
- Ukv 3y ago
  True that A* would later go on to be used in computer game bots (as LLMs may eventually be) where "an AI" doesn't necessarily correspond to the field of AI, but A* was still within what was understood to be the field of AI at the time it was published. The meaning shifting over time, and the reason for which it shifts, is the AI effect. Heuristic-guided pathfinding is no longer what's meant by AI, IBM Deep Blue's alpha–beta search is no longer what's meant by AI, and I'd claim it's even shifting away from earlier image classifiers in favor of only generative models like GPT4.

by Ukv 3y ago

T-A 3y ago

By way of [1], here [2] is a paper about A* also posted under CS/AI. It introduces "Q* search, a search algorithm that uses deep Q-networks to guide search" and uses it "to solve the Rubik's cube", the thing which Gary Marcus complained about OpenAI not having done with a neural network in 2019. As pointed out by techbro92 [3] the authors do not seem to be affiliated with OpenAI, but AFAIK nobody claimed that OpenAI invented Q*. It's not hard to imagine OpenAI trying it out with their Rubik-solving robot hand and then starting to think about other things it might be applied to. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38395959 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38395959 [2] https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.04518 https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.04518 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38398243 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38398243

TeMPOraL 3y ago

I still think the "AI effect" is bullshit. A* was/is AI under a different meaning - it's what understood as "AI" in computer games, where the point is for the computer opponent to pretend to be smarter than a brick, and literally any trick, cheat or heuristic used to do that is part of "AI". A*? Obviously AI. Random walk? Yes. Fuzzy logic? Yes. State machines? Yes.

Ukv 3y ago
True that A* would later go on to be used in computer game bots (as LLMs may eventually be) where "an AI" doesn't necessarily correspond to the field of AI, but A* was still within what was understood to be the field of AI at the time it was published. The meaning shifting over time, and the reason for which it shifts, is the AI effect. Heuristic-guided pathfinding is no longer what's meant by AI, IBM Deep Blue's alpha–beta search is no longer what's meant by AI, and I'd claim it's even shifting away from earlier image classifiers in favor of only generative models like GPT4.