What have neural networks achieved?

[Michael A. Arbib]

Recently, Stuart Russell addressed the following query to Fellows of the AAAI:

> This Saturday there will be a debate with John McCarthy, David Israel,
> Stuart Dreyfus and myself on the topic of
> "How is the quest for artificial intelligence progressing?"
> This is widely publicized, likely to be partially televised,
> and will be attended by a lot of journalists.
>
> For this, and for AAAI's future reference, I'd like to collect
> convincing examples of progress, particularly examples that will
> convince journalists and the general public. For now all I need
> is a URL or other accessible pointer and a one or two sentence
> description. (It does not *necessarily* have to be your own work!)
> Pictures would be very helpful.

This spurs me as I work on the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Brain Theory
and Neural Networks (due out in 2 years or so; MIT Press has just issued a
paperback of the first edition) to pose to you two related questions:

a) What are the "big success stories" (i.e., of the kind the general public
could understand) for neural networks contributing to the understanding of
"real" brains, i.e., within the fields of cognitive science and
neuroscience.

b) What are the "big success stories" (i.e., of the kind the general public
could understand) for neural networks contributing to the construction of
"artificial" brains, i.e., successfully fielded applications of NN hardware
and software that have had a major commercial or other impact?



 *********************************
 Michael A. Arbib
 USC Brain Project
 University of Southern California
 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520, USA
 arbib at pollux.usc.edu
 (213) 740-9220; Fax: 213-740-5687
 http://www-hbp.usc.edu/HBP/