Is Artificial Intelligence really useful to us???

define "artificial intelligence"

Every game on the market today uses AI. But i think your definition of AI is a lot different than the definition I use.

see here for some working definitions:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/artificial%20intelligence

-me

Yes, very useful.

The first thing that comes to mind is the cruise control in my car as I was driving home from work.
Thats basically a PD-controller, which is a pretty simple AI mechanism.

Uhh, less obviously, do you drive with an automatic transmission?
Do you have anti-lock breaks?
An air conditioner?

And all that was just on the drive home.
Im sure I can point out plenty of other AI applications around the house...
but you already get my point I think.

CS bots are useful...

spam filters are useful

Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
The first thing that comes to mind is the cruise control in my car as I was driving home from work.
Thats basically a PD-controller, which is a pretty simple AI mechanism.

Uhh, less obviously, do you drive with an automatic transmission?
Do you have anti-lock breaks?
An air conditioner?

If we're going to call the PID Controller "AI" then the term becomes rather meaningless. Likewise, a thermostat, the prototypical "agent", is not AI either.

Eventually, of course, we're going to have "intelligent" cruise control systems (like "intelligent 4-wheel drive"), which can react to changes in the road conditions, level of traffic, distance to the next car, and so on. At that point, the distinction will start to make some sense.

In answer to the original question, though: yes, of course, there are dozens of applications in which AI is extremely useful.

Quote: Original post by Asbestos
If we're going to call the PID Controller "AI" then the term becomes rather meaningless. Likewise, a thermostat, the prototypical "agent", is not AI either.

AP again
I do consider them AI, and I do also agree that the term is rather meaningless outside of science fiction.
That was the point I was trying to make with those examples...

Quote: Original post by yz87
Is Artificial Intelligence really useful to us???

Not unless you want it to be. ;)

On the issue of the PD (PID) controller being AI...

AI is a blanket term used to indicate a range of functionality within systems (some of which we call agents, because they perceive, reason and act with a consistent set of beliefs). A PID controller does not reason, so it couldn't be called an agent. The PID implements a function, being an element from a space of measurable functions that parameterises the dynamics of a controlled plant model.
This parameterisation (which we call the control law) is designed by an external agent, in consideration of a fixed plant model and then encoded as fixed mapping from states to actions/controls (a policy). While intelligent agents might also develop and use policies, implementing a policy does not make one intelligent.

Hence, a PID is not artificially intelligent, but merely an implementation of a system requiring intelligence to design. If the controller could design itself, that would be intelligent (and indeed, that's a major area of my current research... Learning Control)! ;)

Cheers,

Timkin

I'd say the terminology means different things to different people...

in regards to PD controller again though, while a thermostat or cruise control might be easily brushed off as not-AI
consider,
in a Descent(a fps spaceship shooter) clone I'm working on, my most basic enemy 'AI' consists of 2 PD controllers that rotate the robot to target the player as it moves forward(they control x,y attitude thrusters), and an IfThen check to make if fire when in range.
same old PD controller, but this one's considered AI because of the context... or is it?

well, I consider AI to be anything artificial that acts intelligent, regardless of how dumb the underlying implementation might actually be...