Artficial Intelligence

Julian Price

CS 41 – 10 / 30

December 10, 2004

Online Research Project (15%):   In this project, you will do research using the World Wide Web to investigate one of the focus areas in computer science covered by this course, such as bioinformatics, computer security, digital media, pervasive computing or artificial intelligence. Use a search engine like www.google.com to start locating materials. Use a web page editor such as Netscape Composer to write a report with two sections. Your complete report should be about 1500 words. Be sure to include complete citations, including the URL’s, of all sources. [If you use exact words from a source, put the quote in quotation marks with the reference indicated afterwards in parentheses.]

The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence

Would it be right for machines to take over human tasks and jobs? Can an intelligent robot malfunction, disobey commands given to it and have a mind of its own? When artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence, would it take advantage of human beings? These questions cloud society today as the research of artificial intelligence continues to progress. Artificial intelligence is defined as “the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior” [Merriam Webster, AI]. After the first artificial intelligence program was written, which has been approximately 50 years, artificial intelligence is approximately equal to the brain power of a frog. In less than twenty five more years, these “thinking” computers will have the same brain power as a human. It may seem unbelievable, but it will undoubtedly happen.

In 1955, John McCarthy explains the term artificial intelligence. A year before John McCarthy’s proposal of artificial intelligence, Allen Newell, Herbert Simon, and J.C. Shaw wrote “Logic Theorist”, the first artificial intelligence program. A new computer language was developed, and data was put into lists, where information can be stored, altered or...