English

Feynman on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, with Updates

Artificial Intelligence 2022-09-02 v1 Machine Learning Neural and Evolutionary Computing

Abstract

I present my recollections of Richard Feynman's mid-1980s interest in artificial intelligence and neural networks, set in the technical context of the physics-related approaches to neural networks of that time. I attempt to evaluate his ideas in the light of the substantial advances in the field since then, and vice versa. There are aspects of Feynman's interests that I think have been largely achieved and others that remain excitingly open, notably in computational science, and potentially including the revival of symbolic methods therein.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2209.00083,
  title  = {Feynman on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, with Updates},
  author = {Eric Mjolsness},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.00083},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

17 pages. To appear in Feynman Lectures on Computation, 2nd edition, published by Taylor & Francis Group, edited by Anthony J. G. Hey

R2 v1 2026-06-28T00:31:09.024Z