Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1986)
Two students work to advance artificial intelligence By Stan Nelson Of tlw Emrald Two University students are working to extend the boundaries of artificial in telligence after receiving a $20,000, 12-month fellowship for unrestricted research. Tektronix Inc., the Beaverton-based electronics firm, initially awarded the money to the computer science depart ment, which then awarded the fellowships in January to doctoral com puter and information science can didates Keith Downing and David Meyer. •While both students are researching ways to make computers reason and learn more like human beings, the two differ significantly in their approaches. Artificial intelligence can be defined as teaching a computer to do things humans are better at. Downing said. Performance artificial intelligence is in versely related to human learning, Meyer said. “But if computers ever get better than humans, then artificial intelligence will all but end," Downing said. "The easier (task) it is for a human to do, the harder it is for a computer to do." such as see. Downing said. Now masters level chess playing is relatively easy to program into a computer, but difficult for a human to master. Downing's relatively new approach to artificial intelligence is "implied logic." Prior computer “learning" relied upon induction, where a conclusion was reached from repeated input. Downing said. In implied logic, possible outcomesare deducted based upon prior knowledge, and the computer explains the problem to itself, Downing said. An object's physical characteristics are converted in to functional features, and information stored in the computer's memory is used to deduct what the input might be. "With more background knowledge, we are hoping to make further advances in computer learning.” Downing said. "Knowledge representation is the big problem. The way we represent the knowledge is crucial to the system." The problem is representing the physical world in the computer, he added. — Photo by Shu Shinn (inn Keith Downing (left) and David Meyer are attempting to make computers think more like humans. Meyer is developing new programm ing languages and computer designs for parallel symbolic computation. One problem with computers is that they act on problems sequentially, one computation at a time, he said. Hut if a number of computers could work together on the same problem to do parallel computations, the speed of the computations would increase significantly, he said. Microchips have been reduced in size almost to the point where the distance between chips can't be reduced any fur ther to increase calculation speeds, he said. "I believe this problem will eventually have to be addressed. If it wasn't dif ficult. it wouldn't be worth studying.” Meyer said. And the problem of finding a working model is still elusive, he said. Presently, parallelism is slower than sequential computations, Meyer said. This is because the interaction between the connected computers slows things down too much. “A.I. (artificial intelligence) is almost like a toolsmith and a horseback rider." Continued on Page 15 FOREIGN STUDENTS COME USE US (even when you're healthy) WE'RE HERE TO SERVE YOU YOUR Student Health center - ext.4441 I Rent an Electric Typewriter. Rent now! Availability limited. At your Bookstore. Science Fiction Cookbooks Philosophy Travel Nction Architecture Business Religion Reference Our Book selection as yB diverse as the University. 686-3510 A massively substantial bar solid, hefty, and rich. (Raisins and nuts optional.) Regularly 55* each. Mora BIO twin DIALS In tho Candy Dapt. 3/s1.00 yo 13th & Kincaid M-F 7:30-5:30 SAT 10:00-4:00 MA-4331
