Strategic Computing Initiative
The United States government's Strategic Computing Initiative funded research into advanced computer hardware and artificial intelligence from 1983 to 1993. The initiative was designed to support various projects that were required to develop machine intelligence in a prescribed ten-year time frame, from chip design and manufacture, computer architecture to artificial intelligence software. The Department of Defense spent a total of $1 billion on the project.[1]
The inspiration for the program was Japan's
The goal of SCI, and other contemporary projects, was nothing less than full machine intelligence. "The machine envisioned by SC", according to Alex Roland and Philip Shiman, "would run ten billion instructions per second to see, hear, speak, and think like a human. The degree of integration required would rival that achieved by the human brain, the most complex instrument known to man."[5]
The initiative was conceived as an integrated program, similar to the Apollo moon program,[5] where different subsystems would be created by various companies and academic projects and eventually brought together into a single integrated system. Roland and Shiman wrote that "While most research programs entail tactics or strategy, SC boasted grand strategy, a master plan for an entire campaign."[1]
The project was funded by the
By the late 1980s, it was clear that the project would fall short of realizing the hoped-for levels of machine intelligence. Program insiders pointed to issues with integration, organization, and communication. [8] When Jack Schwarz ascended to the leadership of IPTO in 1987, he cut funding to artificial intelligence research (the software component) "deeply and brutally", "eviscerating" the program (wrote Pamela McCorduck).[8] Schwarz felt that DARPA should focus its funding only on those technologies which showed the most promise. In his words, DARPA should "surf", rather than "dog paddle", and he felt strongly AI was not "the next wave".[8]
Although the program failed to meet its goal of high-level machine intelligence,
The project was superseded in the 1990s by the
See also
- AI winter § Cutbacks at the Strategic Computing Initiative
- Advanced Simulation and Computing Program
Notes
- ^ a b c Roland & Shiman 2002, p. 2.
- ^ a b McCorduck 2004, pp. 426–429.
- ^ Crevier 1993, p. 240.
- ^ a b Russell & Norvig 2003, p. 25.
- ^ a b Roland & Shiman 2002, p. 4.
- ^ Roland & Shiman 2002, p. 7.
- OCLC 48449800.
- ^ a b c McCorduck 2004, pp. 430–431.
- ^ https://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~mturk/Papers/ALV.pdf[bare URL PDF]
- )
References
- ISBN 0-465-02997-3.
- Roland, Alex; Shiman, Philip (2002). Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest for Machine Intelligence, 1983-1993. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-18226-2.
- ISBN 0-13-790395-2
- ISBN 1-56881-205-1, pp. 426–432