[mod.ai] Why we waste time training machines

Ghenis.pasa@XEROX.COM (10/27/86)

>why are we wasting time training machines when we could be training
humans 
>instead.  The only reasons that I can see are that intelligent systems
can be 
>made small enough and light enough to sit on bombs.  Are there any
other reasons?

Why do we record music instead of teaching everyone how to sing? To
preserve what we consider top performance and make it easily available
for others to enjoy, even if the performer himself cannot be present and
others are not inclined to or capable of duplicating his work, but
simply wish to benefit from it.

In the case of applied AI there is the added advantage that the
"recordings" are not static but extendable, so the above question may be
viewed as a variation of "to stand on the shoulders of giants" vs. "to
reinvent the wheel".

This is just ONE of the reasons we "waste our time" the way we do.

-- Pablo Ghenis, speaking for myself (TO myself most of the time)