AIList-REQUEST@AI.AI.MIT.EDU (AIList Moderator Nick Papadakis) (05/25/88)
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Date: 13 May 88 09:55:00 EDT
To: Nick Papadakis <ailist@ai.ai.mit.edu>
cc: John B. Nagle <jbn@glacier.stanford.edu>
From: Mark (M.P.) Turchan <MPTURCHA%BNR.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Query on Fifth Generation Project Status
Sender: Mark (M.P.) Turchan <MPTURCHA%BNR.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
I'm probably not the first one to point this out to John Nagle,
but the Fifth Generation Project is a TEN YEAR program and not
a FIVE YEAR program. It is just completing its second phase
of research. If John or others are interested in its current
status, then I suggest they visit Tokyo from November 28 -
December 2, 1988, when the 1988 International Conference on
Fifth Generation Computer Systems is to be held, sponsored by ICOT.
I'm sure that you can find out the latest news on the project
when you attend this conference.
Yes, it has been five years since the Feigenbaum and McCorduck
book on the Fifth Generation Project was first published. While
it is quite clear that the book was more of an attempt to lobby
for increased levels of AI research funding in the U.S. in response
to the "Fifth Generation Challenge", I do not believe that the
book offered much insight into the project itself. It seems to
have succeeded in increasing the funding however, at least in
the U.S. In Canada, we are having a difficult time convincing
the Canadian Government that more money could be spent on AI
R&D.
For a much more recent treatment of the Fifth Generation Project,
I recommend that everyone read the following book:
The Fifth Generation Fallacy: Why Japan is Betting Its
Future on Artificial Intelligence
by J. Marshall Unger Oxford Univ. Press 1987
ISBN 0-19-504939-X
This book has little to do with AI, and does not say much about
the Fifth Generation Project, but it offers a very convincing
argument as to the underlying motivation (problems with
machine processing of the Japanese language) for a project in
Japan such as the Fifth Generation program. The author spent
1985 at the University of Tokyo, and collected much of the
material for this book while in Japan.
I have no affiliation with the author of this book, other than
the fact that I was conducting research at the U of Tokyo around
the same time as he was. Unfortunately we were in different faculties,
so I never met him. I quite agree with his perspective, however.
Mark Paul Turchan BITNET: MPTURCHA@BNR
AI Exploratory
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
P.O. Box 3511, Station C
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA K1Y 4H7
(613) 765-2700