Defining AI #3: Haugeland's GOFAI (minds in the literal sense)

In this video, I unpack John Haugeland’s famous definition of “Good Old-Fashioned AI” (GOFAI) from his classic book AI: The Very Idea. Haugeland gives a philosophically rich account of artificial intelligence, one that captures the ambitions of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) remarkably well.

But I argue that his definition falls short in two key ways:

1. It excludes nearly all of what we call AI today (machine learning, deep learning, etc.).

2. It doesn’t line up with what early AI practitioners like John McCarthy had in mind. In fact, Haugeland’s “AI” seems to be targeting something rather different from the field as it was practiced.

By the end of the video, you’ll see both the strengths and limits of Haugeland’s approach.