FREE ESSAY ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Perhaps one of the most complex pieces to the human puzzle is our sense of humor. A sense
of humor not only involves intelligence and comprehension but also an array of emotions.
It is not enough to just understand something humorous, but it is also necessary that an
emotional and physiological response be able to occur for a person to have a sense of
humor. However, though there is much involved in ''getting'' a joke, there are even more
factors involved in telling a joke(Ziv 27). This is, unfortunately, an oversimplified
explanation of what a sense of humor entails, as many people have their own opinion about
what a sense of humor is. It is possible that we may be able to measure the level of
humor a joke has. It would seem that the greater the positive reaction a joke can evoke
and the larger the amount of people it effects, the funnier a joke is. Conceivably then,
it can be said that though it may not be all too difficult to create a joke, creating a
really good joke requires much more capability. Now that there is some establishment of
what a sense of humor is, the next question is, can a sense of humor be taught? To a
human, perhaps it can be, but whether a good sense of humor can be taught to a computer
is doubtful. Where our technology lies today there is little chance of computers
replicating true human emotion(Beale 45). As our world simultaneously shrinks and expands
through the growing abilities and applications of computers in our everyday lives, it
seems that the role of the computer has been reversed. Before we knew that the computer
only understood what we programmed it to understand; however, now the majority of our
society is learning more from computers than they are able to input into it. As stated,
it only seems that the roles are being reversed, because somewhere far down at the
beginning of the line someone is programming the computer. However, a transition is
occurring among computer programmers, as they attempt to create machines that learn
rather than machines that must be programmed. It has become the hope of many engineers
that the mechanisms of human thought could be precisely modeled and simulated on a
computer. This is known as Artificial Intelligence(Artificial 3). Artificial
Intelligence, or AI, since its conception, has grown from a dozen researchers, to
thousands of engineers and specialists; from programs capable of playing checkers, to
systems designed to diagnose disease(Dumm 4). With all that the computer is learning now
a new question arises: How long before a computer can learn to understand and execute the
attributes of a good sense of humor? It is believed that the theory of AI has existed
long before recorded, but was not made conceivable until the invention of the electronic
computer in 1941(Dreyfus 6). Since then many scientists and engineers have been working
on a way to make the computer more human. Once it was noticed that the computer could
perform simple tasks such as mathematical problems and memory recall much faster than
humans the idea began that they should become more like us(Beale 2). However after almost
sixty years scientists have still not been able to create AI in the sense that they had
hoped. Even the Intelligence that they have given computers, which at the time was
considered a triumph in reaching towards AI, is no longer considered valid(Kurzweil
14-16). This includes such simple machines as intelligent chess boards and other programs
for elementary games. In the mid 1960''s, however, Marvin Minsky created and interactive
computer program that many believed to be Artificial Intelligence. Though Minsky was even
doubtful of his achievement another scientist, Joseph Weizenbaum, quickly stepped forward
with an even stronger representation of AI. This new program was called Eliza and was
able to imitate a nondirective therapist. This form of AI was extremely believable to
those who tested it, but Weizenbaum promptly explained the simplicity of his program. He
then pointed out the directions and commands the program used to fake
comprehension(Dreyfuss 69-72). Weizenbaum proved through his contest that both his and
Minsky''s programs were
Bibliography
Bibliography 
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Computing: An Introduction. Bristol: Adam Hilger, 1991 Dryfus, Hubert L., and Stuart E.
Dryfus. Mind Over Machine. New York: Free Press, 1986. Dumm, Tim, Adam Dyess, and Bill
Smitzes. An Introduction to the