Slow Friday... One pressing problem of "AI", and might be a useful analogy, is that we're (everyone w/ the money) deploying it, for some value of "it", into weapons systems. The problem is that decisions made by for example an attack drone might have to be made in milliseconds incorporating many real-time facts, much faster than a human can. Particularly if one considers such weapons "dog fighting" where both sides have them. Some decisions we're probably comfortable enough with, can I get a clear shot at a moving target etc. A human presumably already identified the target so that's just execution. But some amount to policy. Such as an armed response where there was no armed conflict a few milliseconds ago because the software decided a slight variation in the flight pattern of that hypersonic cruise missile -- Russia claims to be deploying these, some with nuclear power so can stay aloft essentially forever -- is threatening and not just another go-around. Etc. The point being it's not only the decision/policy matrix, it's also that when we put that into real-time systems the element of time becomes a factor. One can, for example, imagine similar issues regarding identifying and responding to cyberattacks in real-time. An attempt to bring down the country's cyberdefenses? Or just another cat photo? You have 10ms to decide whether to cut off all traffic from the source (or whatever, counter-attack) before your lights (might) go out and what are the implications? I'm sure there are better examples but I hope you get the general idea. -- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: +1 617-STD-WRLD | 800-THE-WRLD The World: Since 1989 | A Public Information Utility | *oo*