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The Return of Artificial Intelligence
It is becoming acceptable again to talk of computers performing
human tasks such as problem-solving and pattern-recognition
A After years in the wilderness, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) seems poised to make a comeback. AI was big in the 1980s but vanished in the 1990s. It re-entered public consciousness with the release of AI, a movie about a robot boy. This has ignited public debate about AI, but the term is also being used once more within the computer industry. Researchers, executives and marketing people are now using the expression without irony or inverted commas. And it is not always hype. The term is being applied, with some justification, to products that depend on technology that was originally developed by AI researchers. Admittedly, the rehabilitation of the term has a long way to go, and some firms still prefer to avoid using it. But the fact that others are starting to use it again suggests that AI has moved on from being seen as an over-ambitious and under-achieving field of research.
B The field was launched, and the term ‘artificial intelligence’ coined, at a conference in 1956, by a group of researchers that included Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, Herbert Simon and Alan Newell, all of whom went on to become leading figures in the field. The expression provided an attractive but informative name for a research programme that encompassed such previously disparate fields as operations research, cybernetics, logic and computer science. The goal they shared was an attempt to capture or mimic human abilities using machines. That said, different groups of researchers attacked different problems, from speech recognition to chess playing, in different ways; AI unified the field in name only. But it was a term that captured the public imagination.
C Most researchers agree that AI peaked around 1985. A public reared on science-fiction movies and excited by the growing power of computers had high expectations. For years, AI researchers had implied that a breakthrough was just around the corner. Marvin Minsky said in 1967 that within a generation the problem of creating ‘artificial intelligence’ would be substantially solved. Prototypes of medical-diagnosis programs and speech recognition software appeared to be making progress. It proved to be a false dawn. Thinking computers and household robots failed to materialise, and a backlash ensued. ‘There was undue optimism in the early 1980s,’ says David Leake, a researcher at Indiana University. ‘Then when people realised these were hard problems, there was retrenchment. By the late 1980s, the term AI was being avoided by many researchers, who opted instead to align themselves with specific sub-disciplines such as neural networks, agent technology, case-based reasoning, and so on."
D Ironically, in some ways AI was a victim of its own success. Whenever an apparently mundane problem was solved, such as building a system that could land an aircraft unattended, the problem was deemed not to have been AI in the first place. ‘If it works, it can’t be AI,’ as Dr Leake characterises it. The effect of repeatedly moving the goal-posts in this way was that AI came to refer to ‘blue-sky’ research that was still years away from commercialisation. Researchers joked that AI stood for ‘almost implemented’. Meanwhile, the technologies that made it onto the market, such as speech recognition, language translation and decision-support software, were no longer regarded as AI. Yet all three once fell well within the umbrella of AI research.
E But the tide may now be turning, according to Dr Leake. HNC Software of San Diego, backed by a government agency, reckon that their new approach to artificial intelligence is the most powerful and promising approach ever discovered. HNC claim that their system, based on a cluster of 30 processors, could be used to spot camouflaged vehicles on a battlefield or extract a voice signal from a noisy background — tasks humans can do well, but computers cannot. ‘Whether or not their technology lives up to the claims made for it, the fact that HNC are emphasising the use of AI is itself an interesting development,’ says Dr Leake.
F Another factor that may boost the prospects for AI in the near future is that investors are now looking for firms using clever technology, rather than just a clever business model, to differentiate themselves. In particular, the problem of information overload, exacerbated by the growth of e-mail and the explosion in the number of web pages, means there are plenty of opportunities for new technologies to help filter and categorise information — classic AI problems. That may mean that more artificial intelligence companies will start to emerge to meet this challenge.
G The 1969 film, 2001:A Space Odyssey, featured an intelligent computer called HAL 9000. As well as understanding and speaking English, HAL could play chess and even learned to lipread. HAL thus encapsulated the optimism of the 1960s that intelligent computers would be widespread by 2001. But 2001 has been and gone, and there is still no sign of a HAL-like computer. Individual systems can play chess or transcribe speech, but a general theory of machine intelligence still remains elusive. It may be, however, that the comparison with HAL no longer seems quite so important, and AI can now be judged by what it can do, rather than by how well it matches up to a 30-year-old science-fiction film. ‘People are beginning to realise that there are impressive things that these systems can do.’ says Dr Leake hopefully.
Questions 27-31
Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
27 how AI might have a military impact
28 the fact that AI brings together a range of separate research areas
29 the reason why AI has become a common topic of conversation again
30 how AI could help deal with difficulties related to the amount of information available electronically
31 where the expression AI was first used
Questions 32-37
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 32-37 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this
32 The researchers who launched the field of AI had worked together on other projects in the past.
33 In 1985, AI was at its lowest point.
34 Research into agent technology was more costly than research into neural networks.
35 Applications of AI have already had a degree of success.
36 The problems waiting to be solved by AI have not changed since 1967.
37 The film 2001: A Space Odyssey reflected contemporary ideas about the potential of AI computers.
Questions 38-40
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.
38 According to researchers, in the late 1980s there was a feeling that
A a general theory of AI would never be developed.
B original expectations of AI may not have been justified.
C a wide range of applications was close to fruition
D more powerful computers were the key to further progress.
39 In Dr Leake’s opinion, the reputation of AI suffered as a result of
A changing perceptions.
B premature implementation
C poorly planned projects.
D commercial pressures.
40 The prospects for AI may benefit from
A existing AI applications.
B new business models.
C orders from internet-only companies.
D new investment priorities.
Question 27
答案:E
關鍵詞:military
定位原文:E段第3句 “...could be used to spot camouflaged vehicles on a battlefield...”
解題思路:camouflage(偽裝)和battlefield (戰(zhàn)場)兩個詞都證明這一段提到了AI的軍事用途。答案為E。
Question 28
答案: B
關鍵詞:bring together/ separate research areas
定位原文: B段第2句 “...a research programme that…”
解題思路: 這個研究領域涵蓋了先前幾個毫不相關的領域,如工序研究、控制論、邏輯和計算機科學。答案為B。
Question 29
答案: A
關鍵詞: reason/ common topic / again
定位原文: A段內容
解題思路: 這一段解釋了AI回歸的原因。答案為A。
Question 30
答案:F
關鍵詞:difficulties / amount / information available electronically
定位原文: F段第2句“In particular…”
解題思路: AI在處理大量信息方面很有幫助。答案為F。
Question 31
答案:B
關鍵詞:first
定位原文: B段第1句“The field…”
解題思路: 定位句中 coin的意思是“創(chuàng)造”,證明AI一詞是在1956年第一次被創(chuàng)造出來的。答案為B。
Question 32
答案:NOT GIVEN
關鍵詞:researchers/launch
定位原文: B段第1句 “The field…”
解題思路: 這句話僅僅提到了AI這一領域的開創(chuàng)者們后來都成了領軍人物,但是并沒有提到他們在過去是否進行過合作。這是一道明顯的畫蛇添足式的NOT GIVEN題目。
Question 33
答案:FALSE
關鍵詞:1985
定位原文: C段第1句
解題思路: peak一詞是指達到頂峰,與the lowest point正好相反。
Question 34
答案:NOT GIVEN
關鍵詞: agent technology/neural networks
定位原文: C段最后1句
解題思路: 這句話只是簡單地提到了神經網(wǎng)絡和智能主體技術,并未將兩者在花費上作任何比較,顯然是一道典型的NOT GIVEN題型。
Question 35
答案: TRUE
關鍵詞:applications/success
定位原文: D段最后兩句
解題思路: 這句話提出人工智能研究中的三項技術已經取得了一定程度的商業(yè)成功。
Question 36
答案: FALSE
關鍵詞:1967/problems
定位原文: E段和F段內容
解題思路: 在這兩段中雖然沒有直接提到人工智能所面臨的問題是否已經變化,但是字里行間都在暗示變化正在產生。人工智能將會被應用到軍事,諜報、信息處理等嶄新領域。所以題目中提到的一成不變顯然是錯誤的。
Question 37
答案: TRUE
關鍵詞:A Space Odyssey
定位原文: G段第3句
解題思路: encapsulate 是“概括”的意思,contemporary 與1960s 對應。HAL集中體現(xiàn)了 20世紀60年代的樂觀情緒,認為到了 2001年,智能計算機將得到廣泛應用。
Question 38
答案: B
關鍵詞: late 1980s
定位原文: C段內容
解題思路: A/C/D三個答案不是太絕對,就是和文中敘述相反,只有B反映出了80年代末人們對人工智能的看法。
Question 39
答案: A
關鍵詞: Dr. Leake
定位原文: C段倒數(shù)3句內容
解題思路: retrenchment是“削減,減去,緊縮”的意思,在這里是指人們對人工智能的樂觀態(tài)度正在消退。
Question 40
答案: D
關鍵詞: prospect
定位原文: F段第1句
解題思路: C答案過于絕對,應該首先被排除。A答案顯然與上文這句話不相符,也應該被排除。而B答案在文中并沒有被提到。
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