stupid little robots
“AI has been brain-dead since the 1970s,” said AI guru Marvin Minsky in a recent speech at Boston University. Minsky co-founded the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1959 with John McCarthy....
Even as he acknowledged some progress in AI research, Minsky lamented the state of the lab he founded more than 40 years ago.
“The worst fad has been these stupid little robots,” said Minsky. “Graduate students are wasting 3 years of their lives soldering and repairing robots, instead of making them smart. It’s really shocking.”
Now that is hillarious. Reminds me of art school somehow. But maybe it is the opposite. Either these particular graduate students are having fun tinkering with toys or some lame standard is in place and time and talent are being wasted with nonsense exercises. Grumpy, old smart-man gettin’ saucy. Heh.
Source: Wired News: AI Founder Blasts Modern Research
The upside is that you could extend this into rather poorly paid performance art work or transition into well paying gigs in Hollywood. Personally I’ve always felt good about tinkerers and tinkering. I suppose people like Nikolas Tesla are rare but very desirable for their ability to generate fully realized, amazingly innovative ideas in their minds and simply set to work building them from that perfect mental plan. The rest of us must continue on with the bailing wire and vice grips.
14 May 2003, 09:21 ::
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