What language for AI?

[blobaugh]

I am interested in artificial intelligence(AI) programming. Any ideas on what language I should do it in? I know C and am learning C++ right now. Are either of those good languages or should I learn another?

[scinerd]

I would think c or c++ would be the way to go. With AI I would think speed would be one of the main concerns and c is one of the fastest out there. It might be good to look at some of the game companies and see what languages they look for in a programer which in turn should tell you what they are using.

[dchidelf]

Lisp is a popular AI programming language.

[bwkaz]

Definitely Lisp. Any college AI course is going to be taught in Lisp (...assuming it's a college that knows what they're doing, that is).

AI actually doesn't require speed as much as it requires you to be able to readily model whatever problem it is that you're trying to solve. And as so many AI problems are recursive in nature, a language that does recursion easily (i.e. any functional language) is a good thing to use.

Plus it's not like Lisp is all that much slower than compiled code -- especially if you "compile" the Lisp source instead of interpret it.

[sploo22]

Prolog is also kinda nifty to play with, because it's so different.

[uzi]

yea, i've heard LISP to be a popular one, but never used it.

i have done sum robotics and i programmed my robot (A.I. not random controls and ish, actually i did that 2 but A.I. as well :)) anyway, it was great to work w/.

[gamblor01]

I know the AI class at UT is taught in Lisp. I believe it's pretty much the standard language for AI. I don't believe that C/C++ would be a good choice. Prolog is another good choice and I believe used to be the most popular, but both have queries, but I think Lisp dominates the field.

[je_fro]

LISP

[lpaulgib]

Lisp is nice because the code is so freely inserted, commands can practically come out of nowhere and run fine. Be careful when writing AI, because if you don't specify the AI to go back to a specific goal, it could basically just crash.