[wplug] OT: AI

[Devin Lee Drew]

On Apr 29, 2004, at 9:53 AM, Bill Moran wrote:

> Patrick Weber wrote:
>> You may find that the topic of Genetic Algorithms may interest you.  
>> They
>> have long been a topic of AI research and have some fun aspects to 
>> them.
>> Basically what GA's do is take a series of parameters and "mutate" 
>> them to
>> use the biological term.  Then it "breeds" these parameters to produce
>> outcomes.  The outcomes that most closely resemble what you want are 
>> then
>> selected, mutated and bred again.  What this does is "evolve" your
>> parameters for your data in a similar way that monkeys evolve into 
>> people.
>
> <humor>
> If humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?
> </humor>

It is a niche. We're still around because someone needs to write code.
;)

Regardless of how amazing the 'AI' is, you're still going to benefit 
from an understanding of the model that it provides. A genetic 
algorithm might give you a confusing combination of functions when a 
simpler model might fit the data. I'd say you should explore all 
possibilities. What do you mean by 'regressions' Chris?

Devin