[Somewhat Off Topic] AI Contest

[Roman Suzi]

On 5 Aug 2001, Doug Fort wrote:

>Roman Suzi wrote:
>
>> On 5 Aug 2001, Doug Fort wrote:
>>
>>>>From SlashDot: http://www.a-i.com/challenge/. A contest for developing
>>>game-playing bots. I really want to write intelligent agents in Python,
>>>and this sounds like an interesting exercise.
>>>
>>>IMHO the extreme flexibility of data structures and procedures makes
>>>Python a superb language for AI (whatever that is)
>>
>> To be good for AI, language must have logic programming support.
>> (I wonder if Guido thinks in this direction 'cause this requires adding
>> new keywords ;-)
>>
>> Anyway, it could be nice to see some logic-programming aids
>> for Python. It could save stalled Catalog-SIG and help with
>> Distutils and other logic/knowledge-base/AI intensive tasks.
>>
>> It is already possible to express assertions/predicates using
>> Python data-structures, but the solver engine comparable to
>> Prolog is to be written. Or, yes, Python needs larger
>> sys.getrecursionlimit() for such tasks...
>>
>> So, it will be interesting to see such results!
>>
>> Sincerely yours, Roman Suzi
>
>I'm not convinced that logic programming == AI. I'm more of a bottom-up
>genetic algorithm fan myself.

Well, "I" could be different. I always thought having logic is necessary
to be intelligent. Evolution is not intelligent, but it solves problem.
Probably, it could be called Artificial Intuition.

>The term 'AI' carries so much emotional baggage now that it sets people
>(including me) off on their prepared rants rather than stimulating thought.
>
>I think we can use Python to get computers to do 'cool stuff'. Cool Python
>Stuff doesn't need to look like Prolog or Haskell or Icon. I think this
>Learning Machine Challenge is a chance to do some cool stuff. I, for one,
>intend to approach it without the constraints of academic AI. If you have
>the time, I hope you can do some cool stuff too (by your own definition of
>cool).


Sincerely yours, Roman Suzi
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