Foundations of Foundations of Artiicial Intelligence

Foundations of Artiicial Intelligence presents a number of chapters from major players in artiicial intelligence (AI) that discuss fundamental assumptions underlying the dominant approaches to AI today. Perhaps the best parts of the book are the critiques: each chapter is followed by an in-depth critique that evaluates the utility of those assumptions in pursuing the goal of AI. But what is the goal of AI? Although several chapters propose deenitions of the AI enterprise, there seems to be little agreement even at this fundamental level. Kirsh discusses the following deenition in his introduction: A theory in AI is a speciication of the knowledge underpinning a cognitive skill. (p. 5) While there appears to be a broad consensus (with some dissension from Brooks) that knowledge speciication is an important part of the practice of AI, there seems to be little agreement that knowledge speciication by itself constitutes a theory in AI. Indeed, while Lenat and Feigenbaum take this position seriously, Nilsson focusses on the language for the speciication of such knowledge (rather than the knowledge itself); Hewitt on communication between agents; Rosen-bloom, Laird, Newell, and McCarl on architectural issues in lieu of knowledge;