Bilkent ACM SIGART (Special Interest Group on Aritifical Intelligence)
talk and discussion...
Ali Kalufya 
In the 1970's, AI research produced many computer programs which emulated human reasoning
and behaviour. These, early successes appeared to indicate that it was merely a matter of
time before it would be possible to construct really intelligent machines. Eventually, it
was suggested, a machine programmed with sufficient knowledge and the appropriate
heuristics, would quite literally be a mind. This position became known as Strong AI, in
contrast to the relatively uncontroversial Weak AI poisition, which simply aimed at
understanding human cognition or producing better computer programs without laying any
claim to their metaphysical status.
The optimism of many AI researchers who believed in Strong AI was shattered by philosopher John Searle, whose now notorious "Chinese Room" thought experiment, has been the center of arguments both for and against the position over the last 15 years. In this talk I will present Searle's ideas and discuss their validity.
Tuesday 25th November, 1997
at 16:40 Room: EA502 (Eng. Building)
Everyone Welcome