The Second Winter: Expert Systems Collapse

End-of-lesson check

15 questions · take it digitally for instant feedback at tendril.neural-forge.io/learn/quiz/end-history-second-winter-builders

1. What technology emerged in the mid-1980s that could perform specialized tasks by following hand-written rules?

   1. Quantum computers
   2. Expert systems
   3. Neural networks
   4. Genetic algorithms

2. Which company sold specialized hardware designed to run Lisp programs faster than regular computers?

   1. Apple
   2. Symbolics
   3. Oracle
   4. IBM

3. What caused the Lisp machine industry to collapse around 1987-1988?

   1. A global computer shortage made all hardware expensive
   2. The US government banned Lisp machines
   3. Lisp programming language was discontinued
   4. Cheaper general-purpose workstations could now run Lisp at similar speeds

4. Why were expert systems expensive to maintain over time?

   1. Rules multiplied, contradicted each other, and required constant expert time to update
   2. They needed constant internet access to function
   3. They required expensive electricity to run
   4. They frequently broke down physically

5. What was the Fifth Generation project?

   1. A US military computer network
   2. Japan's ambitious AI research project that ended without achieving its goals
   3. A new programming language that replaced Lisp
   4. A popular video game console from the 1980s

6. What was the main limitation of expert systems that prevented them from improving on their own?

   1. They were programmed to refuse learning to stay safe
   2. They had no learning capability and could not improve from experience
   3. The hardware was not powerful enough for learning
   4. The rules were already perfect and could not be improved

7. By the early 1990s, why did many AI researchers change the names of their work?

   1. The original AI research had been completed
   2. The term AI had become stigmatized due to the failed boom
   3. The term AI had become trademarked
   4. Government regulations required different names

8. Which company was mentioned as a competitor to Symbolics in the Lisp machine market?

   1. LMI (Lisp Machines Inc.)
   2. Intel
   3. Microsoft
   4. Dell

9. What happened to expert systems when the domain they covered changed?

   1. They became more accurate over time
   2. They asked users for new rules
   3. They did not adapt—the systems stayed the same while the real world changed
   4. They automatically updated themselves

10. What term did the business press use by the late 1980s to describe the state of the AI industry?

    1. AI spring
    2. AI winter
    3. AI boom
    4. AI revolution

11. What type of tasks were expert systems designed to handle?

    1. Any task a human could do
    2. Creative tasks like painting and writing
    3. Narrow, specialized tasks within a specific domain
    4. Only mathematical calculations

12. Why did companies quietly retire many expert system deployments?

    1. Maintenance costs were too high and the systems were brittle
    2. The systems started showing profits
    3. Government regulations required shutdowns
    4. The systems became too popular

13. What programming language was primarily used to build expert systems?

    1. JavaScript
    2. Lisp
    3. Python
    4. Ruby

14. Which factor did NOT contribute to the expert systems collapse?

    1. The systems were brittle and broke on unusual cases
    2. The systems could learn from new data on their own
    3. General-purpose computers became powerful enough to replace specialized hardware
    4. Maintenance costs were prohibitively high

15. What new fields emerged partly as 'escape hatches' from the tainted term 'AI'?

    1. Database systems, operating systems, and networking
    2. Computer vision, natural language processing, and robotics
    3. Web design, mobile apps, and cloud computing
    4. Machine learning, intelligent agents, and informatics