I'm certainly not grad student, but I wouldn't drop my pretty dime in graduate school studying AI. If anything, please not only research the current state of the field of AI but also research the history and those scientists working in the field right now.
I wrote a paper on AI a couple summer's ago and as crummy, arrogant, short-sighted, and inconclusive as it reads, if you happen to skim it, I did come away learning this. . .Turing was one of the few minds that was actually on to something, his vision of the machine and his idealistic tone reads more like that of SciFi writer, here is a most insightful re-paraphrasing of a Turing abstract (me thinks it was his first major publication):
I propose to consider the question, 'Can machines think?'"[8] As Turing highlighted, the traditional approach
to such a question is to start with definitions, defining both the terms machine and intelligence.
Nevertheless, Turing chose not to do so. Instead he replaced the question with a new question, "which is
closely related to it and is expressed in relatively unambiguous words".[8] In essence, Turing proposed to
change the question from "Do machines think?" into "Can machines do what we (as thinking entities) can
do?"[9] The advantage of the new question, Turing argued, was that it "drew a fairly sharp line between the
physical and intellectual capacities of a man.[10]
I'll join your protest in my paper's lack of LaTeX; although I must admit that I've never felt or even considered anything I've ever published (for someone of higher academic seniority) a serious scientific contribution.
Nevertheless, shame on you for introducing the two following ideas in a complete sentence, Knuth's line terminating algorithm and Word's aesthetics. o_O As soon as my words are worth it, I swear to you that I will start investing my efforts into formatting my thoughts in a language as serious and beautiful as LaTeX. Until then Word is a wonderful canvas for finger-painting.
Can't argue with that. Ever since freshman year of college I've just sworn off writing a paper in anything but LaTeX. Rather simple after you get used to it and a PDF is nice and portable too. Of course, I also tend to use a lot of math, especially in my theoretical computer science pieces, at which Word is just absolutely lousy. Anyway, just passing along my thoughts. :)
I wrote a paper on AI a couple summer's ago and as crummy, arrogant, short-sighted, and inconclusive as it reads, if you happen to skim it, I did come away learning this. . .Turing was one of the few minds that was actually on to something, his vision of the machine and his idealistic tone reads more like that of SciFi writer, here is a most insightful re-paraphrasing of a Turing abstract (me thinks it was his first major publication):
I propose to consider the question, 'Can machines think?'"[8] As Turing highlighted, the traditional approach to such a question is to start with definitions, defining both the terms machine and intelligence. Nevertheless, Turing chose not to do so. Instead he replaced the question with a new question, "which is closely related to it and is expressed in relatively unambiguous words".[8] In essence, Turing proposed to change the question from "Do machines think?" into "Can machines do what we (as thinking entities) can do?"[9] The advantage of the new question, Turing argued, was that it "drew a fairly sharp line between the physical and intellectual capacities of a man.[10]
[my crummy paper: http://www.scribd.com/doc/19590360/AI]