MPPSC 2026 Prelims Q32: Which of the following is not an AI

Q: What is the answer to MPPSC 2026 Prelims Q32?

B or D (both accepted by the official key). Correct — B or D, both accepted (grace question). The question asks which option is NOT an AI language, and two of the four options qualify, so MPPSC's final key accepted either. (B) OOP is not a language at all — it stands for Object-Oriented Programming, a programming paradigm (a style of organising code around objects and classes) that languages such as C++, Java and Python implement. (D) VBI is not a recognised programming language either — no AI language of that name exists; in electronics and broadcasting the acronym stands for Vertical Blanking Interval, and even if a candidate read it as VB (Visual Basic), that is a general-purpose applications language, not an AI language. Since neither B nor D can be defended as an AI language, the commission gave the mark for both.

MPPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 32 of 100

Verified against the official question paper. Answer as per the official MPPSC answer key.

Which of the following is not an AI language?

(a)LISP
(b)OOP
(c)PROLOG
(d)VBI

Answer

B or D (both accepted by the official key)

Why

Correct — B or D, both accepted (grace question). The question asks which option is NOT an AI language, and two of the four options qualify, so MPPSC's final key accepted either. (B) OOP is not a language at all — it stands for Object-Oriented Programming, a programming paradigm (a style of organising code around objects and classes) that languages such as C++, Java and Python implement. (D) VBI is not a recognised programming language either — no AI language of that name exists; in electronics and broadcasting the acronym stands for Vertical Blanking Interval, and even if a candidate read it as VB (Visual Basic), that is a general-purpose applications language, not an AI language. Since neither B nor D can be defended as an AI language, the commission gave the mark for both.

Why the others are wrong

(a)LISP — LISP is the classic AI language, so it cannot be the answer to a 'not an AI language' question. Created by John McCarthy in 1958, it is built around list processing and symbolic manipulation — exactly what early AI work on reasoning and knowledge representation needed.
(c)PROLOG — PROLOG is the other standard AI language, so it too cannot be the answer. Developed in 1972 by Alain Colmerauer and Philippe Roussel at Marseille, it is a logic-programming language — you state facts and rules and the system infers answers — and it was the language of choice for expert systems and Japan's Fifth Generation Computer Systems project.

Concept

Programming languages are grouped by generation and by paradigm, and exams mix the two up on purpose. By generation: 1GL is machine code, 2GL assembly, 3GL general-purpose high-level languages (C, COBOL, PASCAL, BASIC), 4GL problem-oriented languages such as SQL, and 5GL the constraint/logic languages associated with artificial intelligence — LISP and PROLOG being the standard examples. A paradigm, by contrast, is a style of writing code: procedural, object-oriented (OOP), functional, logic. OOP is a paradigm, never a language.

The trap here is that OOP 'sounds like' a language because it is written in capitals alongside LISP and PROLOG. The safe drill is to ask of each option, 'could I actually write and run a program in it?' You can in LISP and PROLOG; you cannot in OOP, because OOP is a way of designing programs, and you cannot in VBI, which is not a programming language at all. Both of those are correct answers to 'not an AI language', which is precisely why this question became a grace question.

Key facts

LISP — created by John McCarthy in 1958; list processing and symbolic computation; the oldest AI language still in use
PROLOG — created by Alain Colmerauer with Philippe Roussel in 1972; logic programming, used in expert systems and natural-language work
OOP = Object-Oriented Programming — a paradigm (classes, objects, inheritance, polymorphism), not a language
John McCarthy also coined the term 'artificial intelligence' (Dartmouth conference, 1956)
Language generations: 1GL machine → 2GL assembly → 3GL high-level → 4GL (e.g. SQL) → 5GL AI/logic (LISP, PROLOG)

Study next

Generations of programming languages (1GL to 5GL)Programming paradigms: procedural, object-oriented, functional, logicExpert systems and knowledge-based AIMachine learning vs symbolic (rule-based) AICompiler vs interpreter vs assembler

Common traps

Treating OOP as a language — it is a paradigm implemented by many languages
Assuming any language used in AI projects today (e.g. Python) is what exams mean by an 'AI language' — in the MPPSC/UPSC frame that phrase points to LISP and PROLOG
Confusing 4GL (SQL) with 5GL (PROLOG) in generation questions

State PCS papers ask this as odd-one-out ('which is not an AI language') or as a generation question ('which is a fifth-generation AI language'); UPSC prefers the applications side of AI. Lock the pair LISP + PROLOG = AI, and remember OOP is a paradigm.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
LISP, one of the oldest high-level programming languages still in use and closely associated with artificial intelligence, was developed by:
- (a)Dennis Ritchie
- (b)John McCarthy
- (c)Alan Turing
- (d)Grace Hopper
Answer(b) John McCarthy — he designed LISP in 1958 and had coined the term 'artificial intelligence' in 1956.
practice — not a real PYQ
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) is best described as:
- (a)a programming paradigm
- (b)a database management system
- (c)a fifth-generation AI language
- (d)an operating system
Answer(a) a programming paradigm — a way of structuring code around objects and classes, used by languages such as C++, Java and Python.