This article gives an overview of two recent events on the validation and verification of knowledge-based systems: (1) the 1997 European Symposium on the Verification and Validation of Knowledge-Based Systems (EUROVAV-97) and (2) the Four-teenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence Workshop on the Verification and Validation of Knowledge- Based Systems. To give an integrated view of current research issues in this field, we organized this article along thematic lines, unifying the reports of the two separate meetings. Our report focuses on the trends that we think will be important in the near future in this field.

Book review of "How the Mind Works, Steven Pinker, W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1997, 660 pp., $29.90, ISBN 0-393- 04535-8. Book review of "How the Mind Works, Steven Pinker, W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1997, 660 pp., $29.90, ISBN 0-393- 04535-8.

Researchers and technology developers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), other government agencies, academia, and industry recently met in Pasadena, California, to take stock of past and current work and future challenges in the application of AI to highly autonomous systems. The meeting was catalyzed by new opportunities in developing autonomous spacecraft for NASA and was in part a celebration of the fictional birth year of the HAL-9000 computer.

A computer program that uses AI planning techniques is now the world champion computer program in the game of Contract Bridge. As reported in The New York Times and The Washington Post, this program -- a new version of Great Game Products' BRIDGE BARON program -- won the Baron Barclay World Bridge Computer Challenge, an international competition hosted in July 1997 by the American Contract Bridge League. It is well known that the game tree search techniques used in computer programs for games such as Chess and Checkers work differently from how humans think about such games. This article gives an overview of the planning techniques that we have incorporated into the BRIDGE BARON and discusses what the program's victory signifies for research on AI planning and game playing.

In the last few years, we have witnessed a major growth in the use of empirical methods in AI. In part, this growth has arisen from the availability of fast networked computers that allow certain problems of a practical size to be tackled for the first time. There is also a growing realization that results obtained empirically are no less valuable than theoretical results. I identify some of the emerging trends in this area by describing a recent workshop that brought together researchers using empirical methods as far apart as robotics and knowledge-based systems.

Introduction to this Special Issue on Innovative Applications of AI

Tom Mitchell states that the goal of his text Machine Learning is to present the key algorithms and theory that form the core of machine learning. Not only has Mitchell suc-ceeded in his primary goal, but he has accomplished a number of other important goals.

Understanding the mind is one of the great "holy grails" of twentieth-century research. Regardless of training, most people who come in contact with the field of AI are at least partially motivated by the glimmer of hope that they will get a better understanding of the mind. This quest, of course, is a rich and complex one. It is easy to get mired in minutiae along the way, be they the optimization of an algorithm, the details of a mental model, or the intricacies of a logical argument.

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

This article reports on the development and implementation of DISXPERT, an intelligent rule-based system tool for referral of social security disability recipients to vocational rehabilitation services. The growing use of paraprofessionals as caseworkers responsible for assessment in the social services area provides fertile domain areas for new and innovative application of intelligent system technology. The main function of DISXPERT is to provide support to paraprofessional caseworkers in reaching unbiased and consistent assessment decisions regarding referral of clients to vocational rehabilitation services. The results after four years of use demonstrate that paraprofessionals using DISXPERT can make assessments in less time and with a level of accuracy superior to the vocational rehabilitation domain professionals using manual methods. This article discusses the problem domain, the design and development of the system, uses of AI technology, payoffs, and deployment and maintenance of the system.