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“The Problems and Promises of Artificial Intelligence,” Research Resources Reporter, Gregory Freiherr, September 1979

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A black and white cover of a periodical with text and an illustration of the head of a white man listening with a stethoscope, computer circuits and a server, and a hand touching an old computer

“The Problems and Promises of Artificial Intelligence,” Research Resources Reporter, Gregory Freiherr, September 1979

This 1979 document offers an overview of how artificial intelligence (AI) works. It describes human readable white box, a concept related to explainable AI that is the opposite of black box AI, in which humans can only see and understand the inputs and outputs but not the “thinking” of the program. In addition to experience and training, white box AI requires the program to have a large body of knowledge from multiple sources, consistent logic, and the ability to explain its reasoning. Black box AI is often critiqued for its perceived susceptibility to bias while white box AI raises concerns around human interference, due to its ability to be parsed by humans.

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