section_path: Philosophy/Evaluating approaches to AI/Neat vs. scruffy
section_name: Neat vs. scruffy
paragraph_text: Neat vs. scruffy
  
  "Neats" hope that intelligent behavior is described using simple, elegant principles (such as logic, optimization, or neural networks). "Scruffies" expect that it necessarily requires solving a large number of unrelated problems. Neats defend their programs with theoretical rigor, scruffies rely mainly on incremental testing to see if they work. This issue was actively discussed in the 1970s and 1980s, but eventually was seen as irrelevant. Modern AI has elements of both.