Fifth Generation Computer Systems project
In plain wordsJapan's government-backed effort, from 1982 to 1992, to build a new kind of computer that reasons with logic using many processors at once. It fell short, but it alarmed other countries into launching AI programs of their own.
A national research program sponsored by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) from 1982 to 1992, with a smaller follow-on phase, to create computers for 'knowledge information processing'. Run by the Institute for New Generation Computer Technology (ICOT) under Kazuhiro Fuchi, it aimed to build massively parallel inference machines programmed in logic programminglogic programming, n.: A style of programming in which you write down facts and rules in logic and then ask questions; the computer works out the answers itself by logical deduction. languages derived from PrologProlog, prop. n.: A programming language from 1972 in which you state facts and rules in logic and then ask questions; the computer finds answers by searching for proofs., with knowledge bases and natural-language interfaces layered on top. It produced parallel inference machines and the concurrent logic language KL1, but general-purpose workstations overtook its specialized hardware, the promised applications did not materialize, and it is usually judged a commercial failure. Its announcement nonetheless prompted rival programs: the US consortium MCC, DARPA's Strategic Computing InitiativeStrategic Computing Initiative, prop. n.: A billion-dollar US defense research program, run from 1983 to 1993, that tried to build machine intelligence for military uses such as self-driving vehicles and assistants for fighter pilots., Britain's Alvey Programme and the European Community's ESPRIT.
In the early 1980s Western governments treated the Fifth Generation Computer Systems project as a technological Sputnik.
Origin
Announced at an international conference in Tokyo in October 1981 and launched in 1982. 'Fifth generation' placed the planned machines after four hardware generations based on vacuum tubes, transistors, integrated circuits and very-large-scale integration. Edward Feigenbaum and Pamela McCorduck's book The Fifth Generation (1983) amplified Western alarm.
Usage note
Often cited, with the Lisp machineLisp machine, n.: A 1970s–1980s personal workstation built specially to run the AI programming language Lisp quickly. When ordinary computers caught up, the market collapsed, helping to bring on an AI winter. collapse, as a factor in the second AI winterAI winter, n.: A slump in which disappointment over AI's unmet promises leads governments and companies to pull back money and attention. Historians count two big ones: one in the 1970s and one starting in the late 1980s.; Japanese participants point to lasting benefits in parallel computing and researcher training.
Related
- Strategic Computing InitiativeStrategic Computing Initiative, prop. n.: A billion-dollar US defense research program, run from 1983 to 1993, that tried to build machine intelligence for military uses such as self-driving vehicles and assistants for fighter pilots.
- PrologProlog, prop. n.: A programming language from 1972 in which you state facts and rules in logic and then ask questions; the computer finds answers by searching for proofs.
- logic programminglogic programming, n.: A style of programming in which you write down facts and rules in logic and then ask questions; the computer works out the answers itself by logical deduction.
- AI winterAI winter, n.: A slump in which disappointment over AI's unmet promises leads governments and companies to pull back money and attention. Historians count two big ones: one in the 1970s and one starting in the late 1980s.
- Lisp machineLisp machine, n.: A 1970s–1980s personal workstation built specially to run the AI programming language Lisp quickly. When ordinary computers caught up, the market collapsed, helping to bring on an AI winter.
- AI arms raceAI arms race, n.: A competition among countries or companies to build the most powerful AI first, in which fear of falling behind pushes everyone to move faster and cut corners on safety.
Sources
- Feigenbaum, E. A. & McCorduck, P. (1983). The Fifth Generation: Artificial Intelligence and Japan's Computer Challenge to the World. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Mentioned in
AI winterAI winter, n.: A slump in which disappointment over AI's unmet promises leads governments and companies to pull back money and attention. Historians count two big ones: one in the 1970s and one starting in the late 1980s., Edward FeigenbaumEdward Feigenbaum, prop. n.: An American computer scientist who pioneered expert systems, programs that capture specialists' knowledge as rules to solve problems in fields such as chemistry and medicine., logic programminglogic programming, n.: A style of programming in which you write down facts and rules in logic and then ask questions; the computer works out the answers itself by logical deduction., PrologProlog, prop. n.: A programming language from 1972 in which you state facts and rules in logic and then ask questions; the computer finds answers by searching for proofs., Lisp machineLisp machine, n.: A 1970s–1980s personal workstation built specially to run the AI programming language Lisp quickly. When ordinary computers caught up, the market collapsed, helping to bring on an AI winter., Strategic Computing InitiativeStrategic Computing Initiative, prop. n.: A billion-dollar US defense research program, run from 1983 to 1993, that tried to build machine intelligence for military uses such as self-driving vehicles and assistants for fighter pilots.