Predicting AI: RIP Prof. Hubert Dreyfus

It's hard to predict what AI will be like in the future. Many tried in the past, and all failed to some extent. In this video we look at Professor Hubert Dreyfus, and one of his reasons for thinking AI couldn't be done.

Some of Dreyfus' work:

Here's that paper criticising him:

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[RoronoaZoroSensei]

3:44
"1.5 Computers can't play Chess"
"1.5.1 Nor can Dreyfus"
:'D

[andreinowikow]

1.5 Computers Cant Play Chess
1.5.1 Nor Can Dreyfus
1.5 (Resumed)

Different time indeed....

[haldir]

"loudly and proudly less wrong than the people around him"
No lie, mulling those words over a couple of times makes me teary-eyed and emotional.

[Guishan_Lingyou]

Just a historical note from someone with a philosophy background: For Dreyfus, the more important issue was the nature of human thinking. Sure, from the point of view of AI research, Dreyfus's failure to see the potential for computers to be used in ways that are very different from what people were doing at the time (basically, recursive application of rules as in the mathematical logic the early 20th century), is surely a significant failure on his part. But whatever it is that people eventually get computers to do, however wrong he turns out to be about what computers cannot do, Dreyfus's understanding of how human beings behave intelligently was certainly "less wrong" than the dominant ideas at the time in philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, etc. Computers are able to do things that Dreyfus said that they couldn't because they are being used in ways that are closer to the way that Dreyfus believed that humans work.
A lot had to happen before AI could handle things like pattern recognition and language processing, notably vastly more computing power, memory, the vast data trove that is the internet, ...And, AI researches had to give up trying to just come up with the right set of rules, i.e., to stop thinking of intelligence in that way the early AI researches (and lots of researches in human intelligence) thought of it when Dreyfus wrote "What Computers Can't Do."

[MarcErlich]

I first learned of Mr. Robert Miles last night and he has since quickly been becoming one of my favorite individuals. Keep it up, Rob! Loving your stuff!!

[seanski]

"we hit a new target so I can get a new lens" (and er, return that one? :)) good vids Rob, keep it up!

[deantrower]

I read Dreyfus's book a long time ago (I think it was the 2nd edition "What Computers STILL Can't Do"), and while he's very critical of the GOFAI symbol-processing style of AI, in his epilogue he says something very roughly along the lines, that Neural Networks and other sub-symbolic techniques don't fall under his criticisms, and while he's not super impressed with what he's seen of them so far, he acknowledges that that might change in the future.

[lukaslagerholm]

I love how you express your own thoughts and opinions in a way that makes it easy for people to form their own opinions :). Keep working hard for the channel, its turning out great.

[blakejr]

The mirrored thinking emoji at 5:31 was beautiful.

[RationalAnimations]

"The mountains and the valleys don't change the bigger picture. Earth is round and Death is bad"

, _,

[RoronoaZoroSensei]

You're making me laugh while I learn.
Or are you making me learn while I laugh?
Either way, I'm thoroughly enjoying your videos.
Thank you Robert :)

[ntuthukoanthonynhlapo]

Incredible content. Insightful and illuminating with a splash of humor I'm looking forward to the next video.

[CalvinHikes]

Rob's a pretty good communicator. I can't believe the joy I got from this techy-intellectual video.

[shadow-leo]

Really good video, hope you grow as a channel :)

[Joeonline]

A fair and honest discussion/critique of Dreyfus' thinking regarding AI. Thanks.

[OfficialSlippedHalo]

I absolutely love the format you seem to have, the juxtaposition of comedic captioning interspersing your otherwise mostly serious video. Very glad to to have subscribed even with the little content you have at the moment, and looking forward to more.

[Zzznmop]

As I was about to subscribe, the joke about flame wars on type writers with the table of contents killed me. I'm a fan.

[phatkin]

I see Robert Miles is a "Less Wrong" fan as well

[BaZzZaa]

Loved your videos on Computerphile, the way you explain things is very engaging and interesting. I am so glad you have made this channel.
I really enjoyed your videos on public and private key crypto.
Keep up the good work :)

[ChaoteLab]

Heidegger’s Being and Time with Dreyfus at Cal, 1998. Blessed to be there. And at 2:43 : Dreyfus had issue with our assumptions about thinking, no doubt. Today he’d argue our remaining faulty assumptions wont reveal themselves until we stumble over the obstacles they engender.