AI Researcher Argues the Field Advances by Failing
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A computer science researcher who began studying AI twenty years ago argues that the field still deserves its reputation for ambition, because it advances by approximating answers rather than achieving perfect ones. The researcher attributes AI's reputation for failure to the "AI Effect": once a system works, it stops being called AI, so only unsolved problems remain under that label. The Travelling Salesman Problem is offered as an illustration of how the field works with approximations rather than exact solutions. The piece is a personal case for the field, not a report of new technical results.
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- Hacker News · AIWhy I Love AI: A Researcher's Case for the Field That Succeeds by Failing
A computer science researcher who began studying AI twenty years ago explains why the field still earns a place in their bio. AI's reputation for failure stems from the "AI Effect," where working systems stop being called AI, leaving only unsolved problems under that label. The field is built on approximating answers rather than achieving perfect ones, as the Travelling Salesman Problem illustrates.
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