[Somewhat Off Topic] AI Contest

[Doug Fort]

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. 

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).
-- 
Doug Fort <dougfort at dougfort.net>
http://www.dougfort.net

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