jon@JUNE.CS.WASHINGTON.EDU.UUCP (03/30/87)
I think it is fine that you ran the AAAI Battle Management Workshop announcement. I have grave reservations about a lot of that stuff; nevertheless it is useful even for critics to be informed of what's going on in the area. Also, it is important to note the role of the military in supporting so much AI research. If anything, there is too little rather than too much acknowledgement of this fact in the AI community. The original announcement noted the recent "order of magnitude increase in funding for battle management AI projects," but that is only the tip of the iceberg -- a very large body of apparently more generic AI work is also funded by the Department of Defense. Much of that is putatively basic research, but the motivation for the funding, as described to Congress and the Secretaries of Defense, emphasises potential weapons applications. This relationship should be frankly acknowledged, rather than concealed or glossed over. A very important question is, does this source of funding and this kind of motivation for even "basic" AI research make any difference, either for the content of the technical work, or for the larger matters of war and peace? These issues will be addressed at another event (here comes the plug). On Sunday, July 12 in Seattle, the day before the AAAI conference, the Seattle Chapter of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is sponsoring a one day-conference concerning computing and political and social issues. The keynote speakers will be Bob Kahn, who now heads the nonprofit Corporaton for National Research Initiatives and who until 1985 was director of the Information Processing Techniques Office at DARPA, and Terry Winograd. We are accepting papers until April 1. (If you have something you would like to submit but are worried about making the deadline, or would just like to attend, call or write to me). -Jonathan Jacky University of Washington jon@june.cs.washington.edu (206)-548-4117