The I in AI
(or why there is still none)
El Futuro Digital de las Infraestructuras y la Sociedad
Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
June 9th, 2021 (online)
@dmonett
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett
Berlin School of Economics and Law, and AGISI.org
dagmar@monettdiaz.com http://monettdiaz.com

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@dmonett
How to cite this source:
Monett, D. (2021). The I in AI (or why there is still none). Keynote at the
Webinar “El Futuro Digital de las Infraestructuras y la Sociedad,” Universidad
de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, June 9th, 2021 [online]. Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/dmonett/monett-2021-uclm (Accessed: access date)
Note: This is a slightly extended version of the original slides. Slides with the symbol, like this one,
were added after the talk. They include additional related information.

What is
(machine) intelligence?
@dmonett

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Cortical Columns
Greg Dunn, 2014
www.gregadunn.com
@dmonett

A very brief history of
(machine) intelligence
@dmonett

The scientific study of intelligence
originated in the 1870s ...
… about 150 years ago.
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1870s @dmonett

“The intelligent being, animal
or man, supplies its wants,
preserves its life, improves its
condition, only by the exact
accordance of its present
prevision and the near or even
distant future” (Taine 1875).
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Taine, H. (1870). De l’ Intelligence. Two volumes,
Paris (engl. traduction by T. D. Have: 1875).
First scientific definition of intelligence?
1870
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine
(April 21, 1828 – March 5, 1893)
1870
… among other 500+
@dmonett

[Intelligence is] the power of good responses from the
point of view of truth or facts (Thorndike); the ability to
carry on abstract thinking (Terman); having learned or
ability to learn to adjust oneself to the environment
(Colvin); the capacity for knowledge (Henmon); the
capacity to acquire capacity (Woodrow).
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As referred to in Lanz, P. (2000). The Concept of Intelligence in Psychology and Philosophy. In Cruse, H., Dean, J., and
Ritter, H. (eds) Prerational Intelligence: Adaptive Behavior and Intelligent Systems Without Symbols and Logic, Vol. 1, 19-30,
Springer.
5 (14) educational psychologists define intelligence
1921 @dmonett

“… stimulated by the invention of modern
computers. This inspired a flood of new ideas
about how machines could do what only minds
had done previously” (Minsky 1985)
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Minsky, M. (1985). The Society of Mind. Simon and Schuster, New York.
1950s
Research in AI started in the 1950s
@dmonett

“[Intelligence is] the ability to solve hard problems”
(Minsky 1985).
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AI definition
Minsky, M. (1985). The Society of Mind. Simon and Schuster, New York.
1985 @dmonett

[Intelligence is] an elusive concept (Estes); an illusory unified capacity (Horn);
a cognitive proficiency (Glaser); a polymorphous set of qualities elusive to define,
explain, and measure (Brown); a pluralistic (Anastasi), context-dependent con-
cept (Anastasi; Sternberg); a medley of important events, a mixture of different
things (Horn); a finite set of independent abilities operating as a complex system
(Detterman); the sum total of all cognitive processes (Das); a collective
term for demonstrated, mental individual differences (Hunt); mental
self-government (Sternberg); a judgement or attribution that people do,
and not a quality residing in the individual (Goodnow); a hypothetical
(Zigler), culture-bound, ethnocentric, and excessively narrow (Berry),
societal construct, a concept in the mind of a society at large (Carroll).
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A summary of some of the definitions that are included in Sternberg, R. J. and Detterman, D. K. (1986).
What is intelligence? Contemporary Viewpoints on its Nature and Definition. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
16 (25) leading psychologists define intelligence
1986 @dmonett

“Artificial Intelligence is . . . the study of the computations
that make it possible to perceive, reason, and act”
(Winston 1992).
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AI definition
Winston, P. H. (1992). Artificial Intelligence. Third Edition, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
1992 @dmonett

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(Monett et al., 2020)
Monett, D., Lampe, N., Ehrlicher-Schmidt, M., & Bewer, N. (2020). Intelligence Catalog-guided Tracking of the Evolution
of (machine) Intelligence: Preliminary results. In Basile, P., Basile, V., Cabrio, E., & Croce, D. (eds.), Proceedings of the 4th
Workshop on Natural Language for Artificial Intelligence, NL4AI 2020, 2735: 118-129, CEUR-WS, co-located with the
19th International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence, AIxIA 2020, November 25th-27th, 2020,
online event.
Evolution of perceive, reason, and act(*)
*: Examples of intelligence capabilities used in the texts of 9879 IJCAI papers (1997-2020).
@dmonett

“Intelligence is the capacity of a system to adapt to its
environment while operating with insufficient knowledge
and resources” (Wang 1995).
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Wang, P. (1995). Non-Axiomatic Reasoning System: Exploring the Essence of Intelligence. Doctoral dissertation. Indiana
University, Indianapolis, USA.
AI definition
1995 @dmonett

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A widely accepted definition of intelligence
Gottfredson, L. S. (1997a). Mainstream science on intelligence: An editorial with 52 signatories, history,
and bibliography. Intelligence, 24: 13-23.
As cited in Haier, R. J. (2017). The Neuroscience of Intelligence. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
1997 @dmonett

“[Artificial Intelligence is] the science and engineering of
making intelligent machines. ... It is related to the similar task of
using computers to understand human intelligence”
(McCarthy 2007).
“Intelligence measures an agent’s ability to achieve goals in a
wide range of environments” (Legg & Hutter 2007).
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AI definitions
McCarthy, J. (2007). What is Artificial Intelligence? Computer Science Department, School of Engineering, Stanford
University.
Legg, S. and Hutter, M. (2007). Universal Intelligence: A Definition of Machine Intelligence. Minds and Machines,
17(4):391-444, Springer.
2007 @dmonett

A collection of 70+
definitions of intelligence.
Both of human and machine intelligence.
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Legg, S. and Hutter, M. (2007a). A Collection of Definitions of Intelligence. In B. Goertzel and P. Wang (eds.),
Advances in Artificial General Intelligence: Concepts, Architectures and Algorithms, 157:17-24, IOS Press, UK.
2007 @dmonett

“Artificial intelligence is that activity devoted to making machines
intelligent, and intelligence is that quality that enables an entity to
function appropriately and with foresight in its environment”
(Nilsson 2010).
“Intelligence is concerned mainly with rational action. Ideally, an
intelligent agent takes the best possible action in a situation”
(Russell & Norvig 2010).
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Nilsson, N. J. (2010). The Quest for Artificial Intelligence: A History of Ideas and Achievements. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.
Russell, S. J. and Norvig, P. (2010). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Third Edition. Prentice Hall.
AI definitions
2010 @dmonett

There is no consensus
@dmonett

“There is very great disagreement concerning the concept of intelligence”
(Journal editors 1921).
“[A] substantial disagreement on a single definition still abounds”
(Detterman 1986).
“It is a testimony to the immaturity of our field that the question of what we
mean when we talk about intelligence still doesn’t have a satisfying answer”
(Chollet 2019)
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Journal editors (1921). Intelligence and Its Measurement: A Symposium. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 12(3), 123-
147.
Detterman, D. K. (1986). Qualitative Integration: The Last Word? In R. J. Sternberg and D. K. Detterman (eds.), What is
intelligence? Contemporary Viewpoints on its Nature and Definition, pp. 163-166. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Chollet, F. (2019). The Measure of Intelligence. arXiv:1911.01547 [cs.AI].
No consensus definition (i)
@dmonett

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“[The concept of artificial intelligence] is aspirational, a moving target based on
those capabilities that humans possess but which machines do not” (Lipton 2018).
“[I]t shifts with technological advances and our expectations from computers.
That’s why it’s pretty hard to determine what is or isn’t AI” (Dickson 2019).
No consensus definition (ii)
Lipton, Z. C. (2018). From AI to ML to AI: On Swirling Nomenclature & Slurried Thought. Approximately Correct:
Technical and Social Perspectives on Machine Learning. http://approximatelycorrect.com/
Dickson, B. (2019). 5 European companies that are (really) advancing AI. The Next Web. https://thenextweb.com/
● Still no consensus definition of (A)I
● Very polarized concept
● Interdisciplinarity, different contexts and
applications
● Misleading news and hype around AI damaging the
field
● Need to know the boundaries of the discourse
@dmonett

18 definitions of (human/machine)
intelligence to agree upon in a survey.
340+ new, suggested definitions!
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Monett, D. and Lewis, C. W. P. (2018). Getting clarity by defining Artificial Intelligence—A Survey. In Müller,
Vincent C. (Ed.), Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence 2017. SAPERE 44 (pp. 212-214). Berlin: Springer.
2017-2019 @dmonett
AGISI survey

AGISI survey
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Educational Psychology
USA, Europe
Prediction of behavior
14
Only definitions of human
intelligence
25
Diverse Psychologies
(educational, cognitive,
behavioural, social, cross-
cultural, etc.)
USA, Europe
Understanding of behavior
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Mostly definitions of
human intelligence
567 (academia: 79.7%)
Computer Science,
Engineering, Biology,
Neurosciences, Philosophy,
Cognitive Science, etc.
57+ countries
Computation of behaviour
343 (+ 4128 opinions)
Explicit distinction human
vs. machine intelligence
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A comparison
Participants
Primary
affiliation
Countries
Focus
Definitions
Type of
definitions
Symposium Symposium
1921 1986 2019
@dmonett

A well-defined definition of
(machine) intelligence supports
understanding, shapes the
discourse, and advances the field.
But which one?
@dmonett

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Still a widely accepted definition of intelligence
Gottfredson, L. S. (1997a). Mainstream science on intelligence: An editorial with 52 signatories, history,
and bibliography. Intelligence, 24: 13-23.
As cited in Haier, R. J. (2017). The Neuroscience of Intelligence. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
1997
Most accepted definition, AGISI survey
@dmonett

1 target article on defining AI (Wang, 2019)
20 commentaries from leading AI experts
1 extended answer from target author
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@dmonett
2020
Wang, P. (2019). On Defining Artificial Intelligence. Journal of Artificial General
Intelligence, 10(2), 1–37.
Monett, D., Lewis, C. W. P., & Thórisson, K. R. (Hrsg.) (2020). Special Issue “On
Defining Artificial Intelligence.” Journal of Artificial General Intelligence, 11(2), 1–100.
2019
But still no general consensus in the AI community!

The long-term dream of AI
@dmonett

“The long-term dream of AI is to build
machines that have the full range of
capabilities for intelligent actions that
people have—to build machines that are self-
aware, conscious and autonomous in the
same way that people like you and me are.
[...] The reality of AI for the foreseeable
future is very different to the grand dream.”
(Wooldridge 2020).
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Wooldridge, M. (2020). The Road to Conscious Machines: The Story of AI. UK: Pelican Random House.
2020 @dmonett

Dagmar Monett is Professor of
Computer Science (Artificial
Intelligence, Software Engineering)
at the HWR Berlin. Shehas over
30 years of research and teaching
experience. Co-founder of the AGI
Sentinel Initiative, AGISI.org,
dedicated to understanding intelligence
in order to build beneficial AI. Other
research areas include Machine
Learning, Digital Education Ethics,
and Computer Science Education.
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A dose of
reality!
@dmonett
Dagmar Monett es profesor de
Ciencias de la Computación
(Inteligencia Artificial, Ingeniería de
Software) en el HWR de Berlín.
Tiene más de 30 años de experiencia
en investigación y docencia.
Cofundador de la Iniciativa AGI
Sentinel, AGISI.org, dedicada a
comprender la inteligencia para
construir una IA beneficiosa. Otras
áreas de investigación incluyen
aprendizaje automático, ética de la
educación digital y educación en
ciencias de la computación. (Google
Translator 2021).

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AI’s perception and PR problems
@dmonett

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Misleading news and AI hype
Do not
feed the
hype!
@dmonett

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Needed, among others:
- Multidisciplinarity
- AI literacy
- AI ethics
- Understanding
@dmonett

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“[C]ellular structure
of the rodent
hippocampus, a
region of the brain
involved in learning,
memory, and sensory
integration.”
Brainbow Hippocampus
Greg Dunn and Brian Edwards,
2014, www.gregadunn.com
A complex
reality

The I in AI
(or why there is still none)
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett
Berlin School of Economics and Law, and AGISI.org
dagmar@monettdiaz.com http://monettdiaz.com
El Futuro Digital de las Infraestructuras y la Sociedad
Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
June 9th, 2021 (online)
@dmonett