[PeterStuer]

It is a constrained solver. You can argue about what is or is not AI. It varies over time, traditionally driven by in which part of the AI boom/ bust cycle we were, and lately also by which regulations would apply.

My background is in AI but I would have been hesitant calling the rule based systems I wrote to automate financial descisions AI at the time.

In this case, Geoffrey also seemed hesitant in the past to refer to his system as AI (see https://www.optaplanner.org/blog/2017/09/07/DoesAIIncludeCon... ), but somtimes you just have to ride the wave that brings in the funding.

[throwaway346434]

I have prototyped using timefold in a work project for hospital bed allocation.

Using the shortcut of "It's AI, but it won't hallucinate because it follows all of your policy and rules" has been a great way to onboard both non technical folks and operators warming up to the idea.

[aitchnyu]

<Looks up Geoffrey> I used Drools Planner in 2012, which is a predecessor of Timefold. There was no talk of distilled "models" back then, but this article mentions models as if its a secret sauce.

[wisty]

Rule based systems can fall more into the side of AI than ML.

[PeterStuer]

Objectively I agree. Commercially it's a different story.

I also think AI ousting ML historically was uncalled for, and those that did should bow their heads in shame.