what languages are used in AI research today?

Question

I am currently dabbling in expert systems, emacs lisp, and reading up about artificial intelligence. Traditionally, artificial intelligence is associated with LISP and expert systems with CLIPS. However, I have noticed in computational sciences how much Python is being used. What about the area of artificial intelligence and machine learning? is it still been dominated by LISP? how much is python being used in AI? are any of the newer functional languages, Clojure for example, being used in research?

in the area of expert systems, which shells are most used/popular today? are there any interesting developments language-wise which you know of?

Answer 1

It depends on what area of AI. 

And referring to this question: "is it still been dominated by LISP?"

No, unless it's suddenly had a recovery in the last few years.

People will use whatever language is appropriate for their area. You also have to factor in the availability of libraries, if you're performing some data mining task, you might download Weka and use Java. Or if you're creating some agent theory research that involves sending structured XML messages, you might find yourself using whatever language your favorite XML parser is in. If you're developing a high-performance backgammon program, you might stick with C/C++ and use an existing evaluation function.