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C00002 00002	THE STRUCTURE OF THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROBLEM
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THE STRUCTURE OF THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROBLEM


	The object of this paper is to discuss how the artificial intelligence
problem as it exists today is composed of subproblems and to discuss the
relation of the work being done by various groups to this structure.
Naturally, its purpose is to influence workers to move towards problems
that seem to be important.

	The object of AI research is to acquire the knowledge necessary to
build intelligent machines.  To this end, we want to understand the
various mechanisms and other aspects of intelligence [1].  We could consider
the artificial intelligence problem substantially solved if we could
write a computer program that could understand any human produced texts
and could improve its own problem solving ability better than we can
improve it ourselves.

	We shall proceed by trying to divide the problem into parts and
analyze the parts separately.

	1. First consider the problem of generalizations.  This problems
has four subproblems:

		a. What kinds of generalizations are there?

		b. How are generalizations to be represented in the memory
of a computer?

		c. How are generalizations to be used?

		d. How are new generalizations to be obtained?

We shall start our discussion with the last of these problems.  The ability
to make general statements on the basis of experience or deduction from
previous knowledge is one of the highest aspects of intelligence.  Even
confirming generalizations already conjectured is difficult.  The learning
of generalizations from experience that computer programs have so far been
programmed to carry out is on a very elementary level.  So far it amounts
to hill-climbing on the values of some parameters.  Therefore, we suggest
that the ability to make powerful generalizations will be one of the later
successes of artificial intelligence research.  Once we understand how to
make computers carrry out other difficult intellectual tasks, then we may
be ready to try to program them to make powerful generalizations.  I don't
say that nothing can be done now, but I do assert that we will have to
understand intelligence a lot better before we will be able to program
computers to improve their intellectual capabilities in a general way.