Key Arguments

• Dreyfus clarifies that while an ‘artificial nervous system’ with a body and sense organs might be intelligent, AI workers are not attempting such a biologically realistic project, given the state of physics, chemistry, and neurophysiology.
• Instead, pioneers like Simon ‘propose to produce something more limited: a heuristic program which will enable a digital information-processing machine to exhibit intelligence.’
• He stresses that ‘intelligence’ here is restricted: the resulting robot is not expected to reproduce all forms of human intelligent behavior—such as picking a good spouse or crossing a busy street—but only to ‘compete in the more objective and disembodied areas of human behavior.’
• The benchmark for success is explicitly linked to Turing’s imitation game: the system ‘must only compete in the more objective and disembodied areas of human behavior, so as to be able to win at Turing's game.’

Source Quotes

In short, we now have the elements of a theory of heuristic (as contrasted with algorithmic) problem solving; and we can use this theory both to understand human heuristic processes and to simulate such processes with digital computers. Intuition, insight, and learning are no longer exclusive possessions of humans: any large high-speed computer can be programmed to exhibit them also.28 This field of research, dedicated to using digital computers to simulate intelligent behavior, soon came to be known as "artificial intelligence." One should not be misled by the name.

One should not be misled by the name. No doubt an artificial nervous system sufficiently like the human one, with other features such as sense organs and a body, would be intelligent. But the term "artificial" does not mean that workers in artificial intelligence are trying to build an artificial man.

No doubt an artificial nervous system sufficiently like the human one, with other features such as sense organs and a body, would be intelligent. But the term "artificial" does not mean that workers in artificial intelligence are trying to build an artificial man. Given the present state of physics, chemistry, and neurophysiology, such an undertaking is not feasible.

Given the present state of physics, chemistry, and neurophysiology, such an undertaking is not feasible. Simon and the pioneers of artificial intelligence propose to produce something more limited: a heuristic program which will enable a digital information-processing machine to exhibit intelligence. Likewise, the term "intelligence" can be misleading.

It need not, for example, be able to pick a good wife, or get across a busy street. It must only compete in the more objective and disembodied areas of human behavior, so as to be able to win at Turing's game. This limited objective of workers in artificial intelligence is just what gives such work its overwhelming significance.

Key Concepts

• This field of research, dedicated to using digital computers to simulate intelligent behavior, soon came to be known as "artificial intelligence."
• No doubt an artificial nervous system sufficiently like the human one, with other features such as sense organs and a body, would be intelligent.
• But the term "artificial" does not mean that workers in artificial intelligence are trying to build an artificial man.
• Simon and the pioneers of artificial intelligence propose to produce something more limited: a heuristic program which will enable a digital information-processing machine to exhibit intelligence.
• It must only compete in the more objective and disembodied areas of human behavior, so as to be able to win at Turing's game.

Context

After narrating Newell and Simon’s achievements, Dreyfus pauses to define clearly what ‘artificial intelligence’ workers actually seek to build and how this goal connects to Turing’s behavioral criterion of intelligence.