TIL from a 1980s AI paper that the goals were totally different back then

Emma Owens · 2026-03-07T19:05:49.173953+00:00

They wanted machines to THINK, not just PREDICT.

So we just threw out the good ideas? Maybe they were onto something with the whole thinking angle.

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Ever wonder if we traded real thinking for just guessing the next word? I used to think newer was always better, but these old papers changed my mind.

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patel.parker7mo ago

The 1985 paper by Roger Schank talked about story understanding, not pattern matching. From my work, I've found that going back to these ideas helps fix today's blind spots in AI. It's worth reading the old stuff to see what we lost along the way.

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