Why is/was LISP good for AI programming?

In summary, Lisp was thought to be a good language for implementing artificial intelligence because it had features that made it well-suited for the task, such as recursive processing and the ability to write code on the fly and evaluate it.
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Stephen Tashi
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Why is/was LISP thought to be good for AI programming?
Why is/was the LISP programming language thought to be good for writing programs that implement artificial intelligence?

As I imagine it, early AI programs were oriented toward verbal (i.e. text) inputs and outputs. So perhaps a list processing language is/was well suited for that?
 
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I think the symbolic manipulation feature was why. You could write a lisp program that wrote and ran a lisp program ie you could dynamically change the programs processing steps.
 
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Lisp is a very old language, contemporary to languages like FORTRAN. When AI started becoming popular there were few alternatives that could handle non-arithmetic problems. As @jedishrfu says, the ability to perform symbolic and non-arithmetic operations was considered important for AI. Also, as @jedishrfu says, the ability for the program to piece together code on the run and evaluate it was useful. That ability also made FORTH a language to consider.
 
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I always felt Forth was Lisp written RPN.

Lisp was also known as ‘Lots of InSipid Parentheses’
 
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jedishrfu said:
I always felt Forth was Lisp written RPN.
apt descriptor. But Forth seemed so deceptively simple.
 
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jedishrfu said:
Lisp was also known as ‘Lots of InSipid Parentheses’
And anyone who ever had to work with Lisp code in a regular, non-Lisp-oriented, text editor, has to agree.
 
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jedishrfu said:
Lisp was also known as ‘Lots of InSipid Parentheses’
The way I always saw it was "Lots of Stupid Parentheses" or "Lots of Silly Parentheses". :smile:
 
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A reader of this thread suggests LISP is a dead language. However, it was developed for particular applications and as such is a better language than the popular C's, Java's, or Python.

Here is a good review of its utility. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5952920/
 
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I had a friend pull up a similar article years ago on Clojure aka lisp on JVM I tried it but felt my team would never consider it even though there were some great benefits. Sometimes procedural / OO folks are a hard crowd to please.
 
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Stephen Tashi said:
Summary:: Why is/was LISP thought to be good for AI programming?

Why is/was the LISP programming language thought to be good for writing programs that implement artificial intelligence?

As I imagine it, early AI programs were oriented toward verbal (i.e. text) inputs and outputs. So perhaps a list processing language is/was well suited for that?
No. Recursion and meta-progamming and functional features were the pro's of LISP.
 
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gleem said:
A reader of this thread suggests LISP is a dead language. However, it was developed for particular applications and as such is a better language than the popular C's, Java's, or Python.

Here is a good review of its utility. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5952920/
Considering that Perl was a significant programming language of the Human Genome Project, I can't help but notice that the referenced article is very vague on any advantage that Lisp has to Perl. As a Perl programmer, I came close (although overcome by events) to joining that effort.

See How Perl Saved the Human Genome Project and BioPerl for more details.
 
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I remember reading a Dummies book on Bioinformatics and it mentioned Perl a lot. It struck me as funny because Perl was on the outs and python was ascending for general programming use.

Often academic projects latch onto programming languages based on what the grad student or principal investigator was familiar with instead of what’s the best overall language to use. Bioinformatics was very text search intensive making Perl an ideal choice but later as other tools gain traction Perl loses to python or some other more performant language. Sometimes choices are made on the free tools and libraries the project latches onto.

I never understood why Clojure/Lisp was gaining adherents when it seemed easy to really get lost in the details of the implementation of an application. Small programs were elegant by scaling up presented developer issues for maintainability. The article my friend had provided said that this startup team had switched from Scala to Clojure and saw huge benefits in maintainability and performance but again I never fully understood why they just didn’t use Java or something similar.
 
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jtbell said:
The way I always saw it was "Lots of Stupid Parentheses" or "Lots of Silly Parentheses". :smile:
Argh, I left out a word. Both should begin, “Lots of Insane…” o0)
 
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I haven't touched LISP in years, so I will only make two comments:
  1. The fact that LISP ignores trailing parentheses is a mistake. That encourages the programmer to stick a zillion at the end, thus covering up a logic error.
  2. There is AI and there is AI. Modern AI is not so concerned with what LISP does well - what I would call machine deduction" - as 1980's AI was.
 

FAQ: Why is/was LISP good for AI programming?

What is LISP and why is it relevant to AI programming?

LISP (List Processing) is a programming language that was developed in the late 1950s and has been widely used in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). It is a functional programming language that is based on the concept of symbolic computation, making it well-suited for tasks such as natural language processing and symbolic reasoning.

How does LISP support AI programming?

LISP is a highly flexible and extensible language, which allows programmers to easily define their own data structures and manipulate them using built-in functions. This makes it well-suited for developing complex AI algorithms and applications, as it allows for efficient and elegant representation and manipulation of symbolic data.

What makes LISP a good language for developing AI applications?

LISP's unique syntax and built-in functions make it a powerful language for AI programming. Its homoiconic structure, where programs can be represented as data, allows for easy manipulation and modification of code at runtime. It also provides a rich set of features such as recursion, higher-order functions, and macros that are essential for developing AI algorithms.

How does LISP compare to other programming languages for AI?

LISP is considered one of the oldest and most influential languages in AI programming. Its focus on symbolic computation and expressiveness makes it stand out compared to other languages such as Python or Java. While these languages have gained popularity in recent years, LISP remains a popular choice for AI development due to its powerful features and long-standing legacy in the field.

Is LISP still relevant for AI programming today?

Despite being over 60 years old, LISP is still widely used in AI programming today. Many modern AI frameworks and libraries, such as TensorFlow and PyTorch, have LISP-inspired features. Its unique syntax and features continue to provide a strong foundation for developing complex AI applications and its influence can be seen in many modern programming languages.

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