New areas such as knowledge management and multimedia also appeared in the emerging applications track.

In recent years, there has been a resurgence in research on empirical methods in natural language processing. These methods employ learning techniques to automatically extract linguistic knowledge from natural language corpora rather than require the system developer to manually encode the requisite knowledge. This article presents an introduction to the series of specialized articles on these topics and attempts to describe and explain the growing interest in using learning methods to aid the development of natural language processing systems.

In recent years, there has been a resurgence in research on empirical methods in natural language processing. These methods employ learning techniques to automatically extract linguistic knowledge from natural language corpora rather than require the system developer to manually encode the requisite knowledge. The current special issue reviews recent research in empirical methods in speech recognition, syntactic parsing, semantic processing, information extraction, and machine translation. This article presents an introduction to the series of specialized articles on these topics and attempts to describe and explain the growing interest in using learning methods to aid the development of natural language processing systems.

An Introduction to this Special Issue of AI Magazine

A description of articles about AI systems that have the world wide web as their domain.

Y. Reich (Tel-Aviv University) proposed The paper by M. Benaroch (Syracuse University) suggested the use of knowledge-based tools for mass customization of service products; it dealt in general Grundstein (Framatome, France) reported than the other methods. At the macroeconomic and J. Zahavi (both of Tel-Aviv University) level, Deinichenko et al. presented found that genetic algorithms an expert system that utilizes performed even better than a fuzzy knowledge to analyze economic on Artificial Intelligence linear programming model on their Thus, their conclusion was Academy of Sciences) and T. Szapiro (AIEM4) was held in Tel-Aviv, that AI techniques might provide (Warsaw School of Economics) noted Israel, from 8 to 10 January 1996, better results than rigid analytic the lack of models appropriate to the with participants from 13 countries. Service to customers in the financial for discerning patterns in the economic As a matter of course, almost every area was another focus of the and demographic data of developing presentation at the workshop workshop. Lange et al. described a economies. The paper by touched on AI techniques in one way system for customizing investment Edmonds and S. Moss (Manchester or another.

The Workshop on the Validation and Verification of Knowledge-Based Systems gathers researchers from government, industry, and academia to present the most recent information about this important development aspect of knowledge-based systems (KBSs). The 1995 workshop focused on nontraditional KBSs that are developed using more than just the simple rule-based paradigm. This new focus showed how researchers are adjusting to the shift in KBS technology from stand-alone rule-based expert systems to embedded systems that use object-oriented technology, uncertainty, and nonmonotonic reasoning.

The Workshop on Connectionist-Symbolic Integration: From Unified to Hybrid Approaches was held on 19 to 20 August 1995 in Montreal, Canada, in conjunction with the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. The focus of the workshop was on learning and architectures that feature hybrid representations and support hybrid learning. The general consensus was that hybrid connectionist-symbolic models constitute a promising avenue to the development of more robust, more powerful, and more versatile architectures for both cognitive modeling and intelligent systems.

The goal of the Workshop on Adaptation and Learning in Multiagent Systems was to focus on research that addresses unique requirements for agents learning and adapting to work in the presence of other agents. Recognizing the applicability and limitations of current machine-learning research as applied to multiagent problems and developing new learning and adaptation mechanisms particularly targeted to this class of problems were the primary research issues that we wanted the authors to address. This article outlines the presentations that were made at the workshop and the success of the workshop in meeting the established goals. Issues that need to be better understood are also presented.

The first session aimed to set the component being tested. The stage for the day's discussion by focusing variation in all three of these contexts on the issues surrounding the will lead to different types of and Verification of Knowledge-use of formal specification techniques The first paper, by Formal Specifications to Design Intelligence (AAAI-94) in Seattle, Lance Miller of SAIC, was entitled Verifiable Hybrid KBS" by Rose Gamble, Washington, marked the seventh This paper provided a with its specification, and (2) the The 1994 workshop was significant basis for the comparison of validation refinement of formal specifications in that there was a definitive move in and verification techniques to for their implementation. O'Leary, from the lows the possibility of constraining techniques for validating certain University of Southern California, the experts' choices to ensure that properties of KBSs. A paper by presented a paper on the relationship any new knowledge added is valid Alun Preece, Cliff Gossner, and T. between errors and size in KBSs. This and that the knowledge base structure Radhakrishnan (all from the University paper is among the first to address ensures the knowledge is of Aberdeen, Scotland) considered this important issue.