History, Semantics, and Explication of the Term "Artificial Intelligence"
Valery M. Anikin, Saratov State University, Saratov, Russia
Abstract
We briefly review the history of the term «artificial intelligence» and conduct its critical analysis. The term first appeared in its modern sense in 1955 in a grant application for «A PROPOSAL FOR THE DARTMOUTH SUMMER RESEARCH PROJECT ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE», submitted to the Rockefeller Foundation by J. McCarthy, Dartmouth College, M. L. Minsky, Harvard University, N. Rochester, I.B.M. Corporation, and C. E. Shannon, Bell Telephone Laboratories. The term «ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE» was defined in the first paragraph of the application: «We propose that a 2-month, 10-person study of artificial intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. «The study is based on the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can be so precisely described in principle that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves. We believe that a significant advance can be made in one or more of these problems if a carefully selected group of scientists work on it together over the summer». The problems to be discussed in Dortmund included, in particular, «Automatic Computers», «How Can a Computer be Programmed to Use a Language», «Neuron Nets», «Theory of the Size of a Calculation», «Self-lmprovement», «Abstractions», «Randomness and Creativity». Modern large language models (LLM) have reached the highest level of perfection. Therefore, people who are unaware of how AI actually functions believe that devices have been created that are independent of people, possess human-like intelligence, and thus pose uncontrollable threats. This paper examines the semantic features and semantic structure of the term «ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE» (in English and Russian), and offers an explanation of this concept that clears up misunderstandings that arise when interpreting the term: a simulator of human cognitive functions. To figuratively characterize the semantic nature of the term «A», a series of antitheses are proposed that facilitate a true understanding of the term. One of these is biblical: «Quae sunt Caesaris Caesari, et quae sunt Dei Deo».
Speaker
Valery M. Anikin
Saratov State University
Russia
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