ARTIFICIAL SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE

Sociologists have begun to explore the gains for theory and research t hat might be achieved by artificial intelligence technology: symbolic processors, expert systems, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and c lassifier systems. The first major accomplishments of artificial socia l intelligence (ASI) have been in the realm of theory, where these tec hniques have inspired new theories as well as helping to render existi ng theories more rigorous. Two application areas for which ASI holds g reat promise are the sociological analysis of written texts and data r etrieval from the forthcoming Global Information Infrastructure. ASI h as already been applied to some kinds of statistical analysis, but how competitive it will be with more conventional techniques remains uncl ear. To take advantage of the opportunities offered by ASI, sociologis ts will have to become more computer literate and will have to reconsi der the place of programming and computer science in the sociological curriculum. ASI may be a revolutionary approach with the potential to rescue sociology from the doldrums into which some observers believe i t has fallen.