I largely agree with Chomsky.<p>I think both approaches are needed for general AI: neural networks, or something like them, for low level perception and recognition; and symbolic AI for higher level reasoning.   Without the symbolic layer, you can&#x27;t be sure what&#x27;s going on.<p>Symbolic AI has been very closely guided by cognitive psychology.   Artificial neural networks ignore neurophysiology, so even when they work, they tell us very little about how the brain works.<p>I keep hearing claims that symbolic AI is the wrong approach for <i>anything</i>, and that it failed.   Yet there were quite a few successes (expert systems, discovery learning, common sense reasoning, for example) before sources of funding dried up.