It is Lynn Andrea Stein, Carol AAAI's new Secretary/Treasurer.

The field of AI is directed at the fundamental problem of how the mind works; its approach, among other things, is to try to simulate its working -- in bits and pieces. History shows us that mankind has been trying to do this for certainly hundreds of years, but the blooming of current computer technology has sparked an explosion in the research we can now do. The center of AI is the wonderful capacity we call learning, which the field is paying increasing attention to. Learning is difficult and easy, complicated and simple, and most research doesn't look at many aspects of its complexity. However, we in the AI field are starting. Let us now celebrate the efforts of our forebears and rejoice in our own efforts, so that our successors can thrive in their research. This article is the substance, edited and adapted, of the keynote address given at the 1992 annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence on 14 July in San Jose, California. AI Magazine 14(2): 36-48.

I met Allen for the first time when I came for a two semester long visit to Carnegie Mellon University in 1968. This encounter was a distinct factor in my later decision to join the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University.

I met Allen for the first time when I came for a two semester long visit to Carnegie Mellon University in 1968. This encounter was a distinct factor in my later decision to join the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University.

Letters to the Editor

In Memorium

Matthew R. Cronin, Oscar Firschein, Gary Ogasawara, Elaine Rich Abstract An argument against the view that computer science and communication are unrelated, comments on the imitation game, and the validity of the Turing test. An argument against the view that computer science and communication are unrelated, comments on the imitation game, and the validity of the Turing test.

The following excerpts are from an interview with Marvin Minsky which took place at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on January 23rd, 1991. The interview, which is included in its entirety as a Foreword in the book Understanding Music with AI: Perspectives on Music Cognition (edited by Mira Balaban, Kemal Ebcioglu, and Otto Laske), is a conversation about music, its peculiar features as a human activity, the special problems it poses for the scientist, and the suitability of AI methods for clarifying and/or solving some of these problems. The conversation is open-ended, and should be read accordingly, as a discourse to be continued at another time.

Dennis O'Connor was one of Digital's first 400 employees and played a significant role in the growth of the company over the last 30 years. Standing Committees During his 30-year career with Digital, Dennis O'Connor held senior In the early days of Digital's history, Dennis was involved in the Dennis was the founder and director of Digital's Artificial Intelligence Dennis O'Connor was instrumental in the development of visionary Dennis led Digital's involvement with MIT, Carnegie-Mellon,

Alan Turing's decades-old question still influences artificial intelligence because of the simple test he proposed in his article in Mind. In this article, AI Magazine collects presentations about the first round of the classic Turing Test of machine intelligence, held November 8, 1991 at The Computer Museum, Boston. Robert Epstein, Director Emeritus, Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, and an adjunct professor of psychology, Boston University, University of Massachusetts (Amherst), and University of California (San Diego) summarizes some of the difficult issues during the planning of this first real-time competition, and describes the event. Presented in tandem with Dr. Epstein's article is the actual transcript of session that won the Loebner Prize Competition--Joseph Weintraub's computer program PC Therapist. In 1985 an old friend, Hugh Loebner, told me The intricacies of setting up a real Turing Test excitedly that the Turing Test should be made that would ultimately yield a legitimate into an annual contest. We were ambling winner were enormous. Small points were down a Manhattan street on our way to occasionally debated for months without dinner, as I recall. Hugh was always full of clear resolution. Turing, proposed a variation on a simple Four years later, while serving as the director parlor game as a means for identifying a of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, machine that can think: A human judge an advanced studies institute in Massachusetts, interacts with two computer terminals, one I established the Loebner Prize controlled by a computer and the other by a Competition, the first serious effort to locate person, but the judge doesn't know which is a machine that can pass the Turing Test. If, after a prolonged conversation at Hugh had come through with a pledge of each terminal, the judge can't tell the difference, $100,000 for the prize money, along with we'd have to say, asserted Turing, that some additional funds from his company, in some sense the computer is thinking. Crown Industries, to help with expenses. The Computers barely existed in Turing's day, but, quest for the thinking computer had begun. I'll then describe that After much debate, the Loebner Prize Committee first event, which took place on November 8, ultimately rejected Turing's simple 1991, at The Computer Museum in Boston two-terminal design in favor of one that is and offer a summary of some of the data generated more discriminating and less problematic. Finally, I'll speculate The two-terminal design is troublesome for about the future of the competition--now an several reasons, among them: The design presumes annual event, as Hugh envisioned--and that the hidden human--the human about its significance to the AI community.