Date: Wed, 14 Feb 96 03:57 GMT
From: ronc (Ron Chrisley)
To: letters@guardian.co.uk, ronc
Subject: Artificial vs Natural Intelligence


Big Blue's victory over Kasparaov is indeed, as you say, "a milestone
in the progress of artificial intelligence" ("Mr Kasparov and the deep
blues", Feb 13th).  But it does not show that "intuition is
programmable".  The way that Big Blue plays chess is very different
from the way humans do.  Its victory does not mean that we have at
last programmed computer to think like a human; rather it shows that
there are some circumscribed areas of human activity for which one
does not need fluid human cognition in order to do well.  And no, Big
Blue is not "within sight of passing the Turing Test".  In fact, its
ability to play chess flawlessly around the clock, for months or years
on end, would be a dead giveaway that it is not human.

Ronald L. Chrisley