Some people believe that the expert system field is dead, yet others believe it is alive and well. To gain a better insight into these possible views, the first three world congresses on expert systems (which typically attract representatives from some 45-50 countries) are used to determine the health of the global expert system field in terms of applied technologies, applications, and management. This article highlights some of these findings.

AI has been well supported by government research and development dollars for decades now, and people are beginning to ask hard questions: What really works? What are the limits? What doesn't work as advertised? What isn't likely to work? What isn't affordable? This article holds a mirror up to the community, both to provide feedback and stimulate more self-assessment. The significant accomplishments and strengths of the field are highlighted. The research agenda, strategy, and heuristics are reviewed, and a change of course is recommend-ed to improve the field's ability to produce reusable and interoperable components.

The mail sorting, folding, and inserting mobile personal communications goal is to facilitate the design of exhaust equipment, has implemented an expert network that will permit any mufflers of inlet manifolds in system solution at the core of its type of wireless telephone transmission--voice, hours instead of days. Air Force Manufacturing Technology service data from which common GKIS Intelligent Systems (Houston, Directorate (MANTECH) (Wright-Patterson knowledge--such as service procedures, Tex.) has developed the It is process to prove out and select Intergraph (Huntsville, Ala.), a designed to mine environmental optimal new concepts. The company has Industries (Phenix City, Ala.), a decisions related to advanced launched Project Solomon to upgrade textile manufacturer, is using an automated strike-warfare technology. The Workers' Compensation Fund uses advanced vision technology, neural knowledge-based software. The system compares workers' to develop a fuzzy logic-based solution off-quality production.

This article describes FAQ FINDER, a natural language question-answering system that uses files of frequently asked questions as its knowledge base. Unlike AI question-answering systems that focus on the generation of new answers, FAQ FINDER retrieves existing ones found in frequently asked question files. Unlike information-retrieval approaches that rely on a purely lexical metric of similarity between query and document, FAQ FINDER uses a semantic knowledge base (WORDNET) to improve its ability to match question and answer. We include results from an evaluation of the system's performance and show that a combination of semantic and statistical techniques works better than any single approach.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is being challenged to perform more frequent and intensive space-exploration missions at greatly reduced cost. Nowhere is this challenge more acute than among robotic planetary exploration missions that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) conducts for NASA. This article describes recent and ongoing work on spacecraft autonomy and ground systems that builds on a legacy of existing success at JPL applying AI techniques to challenging computational problems in planning and scheduling, real-time monitoring and control, scientific data analysis, and design automation.

The Third International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Planning Systems (AIPS-96) was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 29 to 31 May 1996. The main gathering of researchers in AI and planning and scheduling, the conference promoted the practical applications of planning technologies. Details of the conference papers and sessions are provided as well as information on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- Rome Laboratory Planning Initiative.

The Third International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Planning Systems (AIPS-96) was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 29 to 31 May 1996. The main gathering of researchers in AI and planning and scheduling, the conference promoted the practical applications of planning technologies. Details of the conference papers and sessions are provided as well as information on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- Rome Laboratory Planning Initiative.

Net-ID (San Francisco, Calif.) has been involving the deployment of the and performance management as well awarded a $500,000 grant by the National Army's vast resources. Intelligent Optimization (St. Louis, software for the rapid analysis and Mo.) has developed optimizor, a neural StockSmart (Dallas, Tex.) has integrated classification of the large number of network program designed to help hospital quest server, an intelligent searchand-discovery DNA and protein sequences produced staff members make more efficient The AIbased creates an optimal schedule that its web site. Visitors to StockSmart's software will be used to mine reflects an institution's own preferences web site can use Resumix (Sunnyvale, Calif.) has won a among thousands of mutual funds. The contract calls for Technology Office. Users will have installed in each regional location of systems in a real-time, interactive environment.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is being challenged to perform more frequent and intensive space-exploration missions at greatly reduced cost. Nowhere is this challenge more acute than among robotic planetary exploration missions that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) conducts for NASA. This article describes recent and ongoing work on spacecraft autonomy and ground systems that builds on a legacy of existing success at JPL applying AI techniques to challenging computational problems in planning and scheduling, real-time monitoring and control, scientific data analysis, and design automation.

This article was reprinted with permission from "ACM Computing Surveys: 28(4): December 1996, 653-670. original is available from ACM.