Why Have Fuzzy Sets Made Almost No Impact on AI, and Can This be Changed?

Jerry M. Mendel, University of Southern California,USA,
Abstract: This keynote talk answers two questions that should be of great importance to the attendees of FUZZ-IEEE 2021:

Why have fuzzy sets made almost no impact on AI?; and,
Can this be changed?
The first question is based on the almost zero coverage of fuzzy sets in the very widely used AI textbook by Norwig, as well as Lotfi Zadeh�s belief that fuzzy sets were always a part of AI. My answers to this question will be provocative and soul searching, but will also be constructive.

The second question is based on this speaker�s belief that the AI community is not fully aware of the full potential of fuzzy sets, since there has been no motivation for the AI community to use them. My answers to this question will be based on the many developments about fuzzy sets and fuzzy systems that the AI community has not been made aware of or has not followed because of long-held beliefs that fuzzy sets and systems were of no value to AI.

It is hoped that this talk will open dialogs within the fuzzy logic community that focus on how to remedy this situation.