""The author explores Gerald Edelman's work (G.M. Edelman, 1987; 1988; 1989; 1992) against the background of pertinent problems in artificial intelligence (AI): the traditional symbol manipulation paradigm, and other well-known developments such as Soar, the so-called new AI, connectionism, and genetic algorithms. Intelligence and symbol manipulation, Edelman's neural group selection theory, its extension, and their relation to AI are discussed.""