The New Scientist magazine published the following news item on 21 August 1975
For those who have trouble solving the Tantalizers that run each week in New Scientist, Dr Chris Reynolds of Brunel University has developed a computer programme.
CODIL was a very early attempt to build a human-friendly language for a computer which could work with humans as a transparent "electronic clerk" - avoiding the "black box" problems associated with modern large language artificial intelligent systems.. The current study suggested that CODIL worked by modelling how the human brain handles complex information processing tasks. The CODIL archives suggest effective ways of building transparent AI systems and modelling how human intelligence evolved
The New Scientist magazine published the following news item on 21 August 1975
For those who have trouble solving the Tantalizers that run each week in New Scientist, Dr Chris Reynolds of Brunel University has developed a computer programme.
The picture was generated by AI using the description "A school girl wearing an orange blazer which has a pink badge on the pocket. The girl is wearing a turquoise hat and a khaki scarf. Her skirt is black"
SCHOOL COLOURS
TELL ME, PROFERROR PINHOLE, WHICH SCHOOL DOES YOUR DAUGHTER ALICE GO TO.
LET ME THINK.
IS IT THE ONE WITH THE ORANGE HAT AND THE TURQUOISE SCARF?
OR WITH THE KHARKI BLAZER AND THE ORANGE EMBLEM?
OR WITH THE PINK BLAZER AND THE ORANGE SCARF?
OR WITH THE KHARKI SCARF AND PINK EMBLEM?
OR WITH THE KHAKI HAT AND TURQUOISE EMBLEM?
I FEAR I CANNOT RECOLLECT.
GOOD HEAVENS. PROFESSOR, HOWEVER MANY SCHOOLS ARE THERE?
JUST FOUR AND I HAVE ONE DAUGHTER AT EACH.
BETH GOES TO ST GERTRUDE'S
CLARE WEARS A TURQUIOSE HAT AND
DEBBIE WEARS A KHARKI EMBLEM.
ST ETHELREDA'S FLAUNTS A PINK SCARF,
ST FAITH'S AN ORANGE BLAZER AND
ST IDA'S A PINK HAT.
ANE WHOSE ARE THOSE CLOTHES FLUNG DOWN ON THE FLOOR OVER THERE?
THE TURQUOISE HAT AND THE KHARKI BLAZER BELONG TO DIFFERENT GIRLS.
AS FOR THE TURQUOISE BLAZER, WELL I THINK YOU MIGHT WORK THAT OUT FOR YOURSELF."
Author Martin Hollis
Published in the New Scientist
More information about TANTALIZE - a heuristic problem solver written in CODIL
Try and solve the puzzle yourself before seeing how TANTALIZE solves it.
The purpose of this blog is to encourage the change of information of information about CODIL, the underlying theory and its relation to human and artificial intelligence. It will also be concerned with the history of the CODIL project and the problems of providing support for unconventional "blue sky" ideas, especially when the person who has those ideas is neurodiverse. Constructive criticism is alway welcome - as such criticism is at the heart of all healthy scientific research.
One of the biggest difficulties faced by chatbots and other AI packages based on large language models is that they are black box systems which lack transparency. The same difficulty can also apply to large conventionally programmed commercial applications where the lack of transparency can have serious consequences. This problem has been spectacularly demonstrated by the problems caused by the General Post Office's Horizon software where innocent postmasters ended in prison because of errors in the "black box" software. Part of the problem was that the courts were prepared to accept as reliable "evidence" from a complex "black box" system which was unable to answer questions about the origins or reliability of the evidence it was being provided.
In reading this blog you will links taking you to blogs I no longer have access to due to antique software and lost passwords, in part due to a serious computer failure and a failure in keeping proper backed up records.
As I have aphantasis I am not good a drawing images because I have aphantasia I cannot inagine what they would look like - but I can describe them in words. As a result I have used Bing to create images from a word description and used the results in the earlier blog posts. I found some of the results very impressive - but when I came to the post "What is CODIL" the AI package demonstrated how little it understands what it is doing. I simply asked for a picture of a laptop with the word "CODIL" on the screen. This completely floored it and however I reworded the request it usually used the word "COIL" or "COLL". So I repeated the request for a picture of a shop front with someone standing outside, with the name "CODIL" and it offered three pictures of a shop called "CODE" and this interesting variation.
‘Did the Hype Associated with Early AI Research Lead to Alternative Routes Towards Intelligent Interactive Computer Systems Being Overlooked?’
By Chris Reynolds, chris@codil.co.uk
Introductory statements for panel session "AI – Future Realities" chaired by John Handby at "Archives of IT Forum on the Histories of the Internet," London, 9 January 2024
Artificial Intelligence research has involved chasing one heavily funded and overhyped paradigm after another, with intervening AI winters. A study of the commercially unsuccessful projects can tell you a lot about the economic and political environment that decided which projects should get funded and which would be abandoned,