&gt; What do we want? Make some scifi become real? No, we just want helpful machines.<p>It depends. It&#x27;s common to split AI research into 4 types, by asking 2 questions:<p><pre><code>    1) Do you care about the end result or the mechanism&#x2F;approach being taken?
    2) Do you care about mimicking humans or &quot;doing the right thing&quot;?
</code></pre>
Hence the 4 categories are:<p><pre><code>    A) Systems that think like humans (mimicking the approach taken by humans)
    B) Systems that think rationally (using the &quot;right&quot; approach)
    C) Systems that act like humans (mimicking human results)
    D) Systems that act rationally (achieving the &quot;right&quot; result)
</code></pre>
For example, this breakdown appears in section 1.1 &quot;What is AI?&quot; in &quot;AI A Modern Approach&quot;, which I happen to have on my desk.<p>Whilst not perfect, identifying which of these categories some approach&#x2F;research fits into can avoid a lot of well-trodden philosophical debates which can easily derail any discussion about said approach&#x2F;research.<p>In this case, you seem to be in the &quot;act rationally&quot; camp. That&#x27;s fine, but it&#x27;s unfair to dismiss the goals of other researchers who fit into other categories. For example, those trying to find out how the human mind is structured; what assistance and interventions could help disabled people; etc. In those cases, a data-crunching ear implant might be a useful commodity to have, in the same way that AI researchers probably have mobile phones, but wouldn&#x27;t offer any insight into the problem.