__NOTOC__ ''Artificial Intelligence: A General Survey'', commonly known as the Lighthill report, is a

scholarly article Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or thesis, theses. The part of academic written output that is not forma ...

James Lighthill Sir Michael James Lighthill (23 January 1924 – 17 July 1998) was a British applied mathematician, known for his pioneering work in the field of aeroacoustics and for writing the Lighthill report on artificial intelligence. Biography J ...

, published in ''Artificial Intelligence: a paper symposium'' in 1973. Published in 1973, it was compiled by Lighthill for the British

Science Research Council The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) and its predecessor the Science Research Council (SRC) were the UK agencies in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities, including astronomy, biotechnology and bi ...

as an evaluation of academic research in the field of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

(AI). The report gave a very pessimistic prognosis for many core aspects of research in this field, stating that "In no part of the field have the discoveries made so far produced the major impact that was then promised". It "formed the basis for the decision by the British government to end support for AI research in most British universities". While the report was supportive of research into the simulation of neurophysiological and psychological processes, it was "highly critical of

basic research Basic research, also called pure research or fundamental research, is a type of scientific research with the aim of improving scientific theories for better understanding and prediction of natural or other phenomena. In contrast, applied rese ...

in foundational areas such as

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrate ...

and

language processing Language processing refers to the way humans use words to communicate ideas and feelings, and how such communications are processed and understood. Language processing is considered to be a uniquely human ability that is not produced with the sa ...

". The report stated that AI researchers had failed to address the issue of

combinatorial explosion In mathematics, a combinatorial explosion is the rapid growth of the complexity of a problem due to how the combinatorics of the problem is affected by the input, constraints, and bounds of the problem. Combinatorial explosion is sometimes used to ...

when solving problems within real-world domains. That is, the report states that AI techniques may work within the scope of small problem domains, but the techniques would not scale up well to solve more realistic problems. The report represents a pessimistic view of AI that began after early excitement in the field. The Science Research Council's decision to invite the report was partly a reaction to high levels of discord within the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

's Department of Artificial Intelligence, one of the earliest and biggest centres for AI research in the UK.

References

{{Reflist

External links

"Artificial Intelligence: A General Survey"
James Lighthill: in ''Artificial Intelligence: a paper symposium'', Science Research Council
Other Freddy II Robot Resources
Includes a link to the 90-minute 1973 "''Controversy''" debate from the Royal Academy of Lighthill vs. Michie, McCarthy and Gregory in response to Lighthill's report to the British government. *The Lighthill Debate (1973) at YouTube
Part 123456
1973 documents 1973 in science 1973 in the United Kingdom Computer science papers History of artificial intelligence History of computing in the United Kingdom Documents of the United Kingdom

See also

References

External links