AI ISA OK?

Appeared in Volume 6/4, November 1993

During a particularly boring class in AI, I began looking through the index of the textbook 'Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming' by Peter Norvig. (copyright 1992 by Morgan Kaufmann Publishers). Under "Q", I came across the entry:

Quayle, Dan, 735

Completely mystified as to why Dan Quayle would be mentioned in an AI text, I turned to p.735. The topic being discussed concerned auxiliary verbs, and Quayle's name was not mentioned anywhere. Deciding that the entry was a mistake, I started to close the book, and then I noticed, about halfway down the page, three sentences which were intended to illustrate the three senses of the verb "be.":

"He is a fool."
"He is a Republican."
"He is in Indiana."

Tina Mancuso
tmancuso@drunivac.drew.edu