Artificial Intelligence is the field of research which seeks to transfer the thinking characteristics of the human brain to the computer. It includes two primary focuses: one is the determination of how humans think, the second is how to incorporate these methods into computer processing. When Charles Boole published his algebraic system, the idea developed that other than simple mathematics could be processed by computers. Ever since Boolean algebra enabled logical arguments to be solved by computers, researchers have been trying to incorporate the other aspects of human thought. Among these are deduction, induction, inference, voice recognition, creativity in responses, extrapolation, and the ability to learn from past experiences.
It was efforts in game theory research which led to the beginnings of artificial intelligence. In attempting to create games, such as chess, which could successfully compete against humans, researchers had to consider how a computer might reason out the best of a number of possible moves. Realizing that the human chess player does not mentally run through all combinations of movement, developers gave consideration to the methods by which a chess master chooses a move. Incorporating notions of extrapolation and deduction, computer game theory has developed so that they can regularly out-play human players. But the debate continues as to whether computers actually "out-think" humans.
To deal with this question, attempts have been made to standardize the notion of intelligent thought. One such attempt was made by Alan M. Turing, who proposed what is now known as the "Turing test" for artificial intelligence. Simply stated, the Turing test suggests that a prerequisite for artificial intelligence should be that the computer be indistinguishable from a human in its thought patterns. An example would be if playing two games of chess through the mail, one with a human chess master and one with a computer, one should not be able to distinguish which is which.
Another researcher, Terry Winograd, made a later attempt at investigating artificial intelligence. In 1971, Winograd wrote a program called "SHRDLU". This was the first program to parse English statements contextually and analyze new problems logically. SHRDLU could answer, in English sentences, simple questions about a collection of different toy blocks.
More recent developments in artificial intelligence include voice and graphic pattern recognition software. For example, the U.S. Post Office uses a pattern recognition machine to sort letters by zip code. Voice-recognition is already in use (in voice menus) by a number of businesses, including the telephone companies. Voice recognition is used to transform speech to written text for the deaf, and character recognition is used to transform the written word to speech for the blind.
As these various aspects of thought are developed for computer processing the field of robotics takes on new significance. Soon, science fiction will become fact, as more human thought patterns are given to non-biological machines. The development of artificial intelligence technology necessitates that humans begin to consider how to define such words as "life," "thought," "intelligence," and "machine." Because of this, artificial intelligence raises questions which extend far beyond the field of computers.
