While some proposals for supercomputers increase the powers of existing machines like CDC and Cray supercomputers, others suggest radical changes of architecture to speed up non-traditional operations such as logical inference in PROLOG, recognition/ action in production systems, or message passing. We examine the case of parallel PROLOG to identify several related computations which subsume those of parallel PROLOG, but which have much wider interest, and which may have roughly the same difficulty of mechanization. Similar considerations apply to some other proposed architectures as well, raising the possibility that current efforts may be limiting their aims unnecessarily.

AI research at JPL started in 1972 when design and construction of experimental "Mars Rover" began. Early in that effort, it was recognized that rover planning capabilities were inadequate. Research in planning was begun in 1975, and work on a succession of AI expert systems of steadily increasing power has continued to the present. Within the group, we have concentrated our efforts on expert systems, although work on vision and robotics has continued in a separate organizations, with which we have maintained informal contacts.

The subject the idea has changed psychology, anthropology, sociology, is attempting to make sense of the world, and often coping and psychiatry should make its pervasiveness and importance with incomplete information, failure to understand, or lacking more evident.

The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Project, later known as the Stanford AI Lab or SAIL, was created by Prof. John McCarthy shortly after his arrival at Stanford on 1962. As a faculty member in the Computer Science Division of the Mathematics Department, McCarthy began supervising research in artificial intelligence and timesharing systems with a few students. From this small start, McCarthy built a large and active research organization involving many other faculty and research projects as well as his own. There is no single theme to the SAIL memos. They cannot be easily categorized because they show a diversity of interests, resulting from the diversity of investigators and projects. Nevertheless, there are some important dimensions to the research that took place in the AI Lab that will try to put in historical context in this brief introduction.

While some proposals for supercomputers increase the powers of existing machines like CDC and Cray supercomputers, others suggest radical changes of architecture to speed up non-traditional operations such as logical inference in PROLOG, recognition/ action in production systems, or message passing. We examine the case of parallel PROLOG to identify several related computations which subsume those of parallel PROLOG, but which have much wider interest, and which may have roughly the same difficulty of mechanization. Similar considerations apply to some other proposed architectures as well, raising the possibility that current efforts may be limiting their aims unnecessarily.

Since the 1970's AI research has become very active in China and certain results have been achieved. This paper is intended to review briefly what was and is going on in AI field in China.

GLISP programs are shorter and more readable than equivalent LISP programs. The object code produced by GLISP is optimized, making it about as efficient as handwritten Lisp. An integrated programming environment is provided, including automatic incremental compilation, interpretive programming features, and an intelligent display-based inspector/editor for data and data-type descriptions. GLISP code is relatively portable; the compiler and data inspector are implemented for most major dialects of LISP and are available free or at nominal cost.

Cooperative distributed problem solving networks are distributed networks of semi-autonomous processing nodes that work together to solve a single problem. The Distributed Vehicle Monitoring Testbed is a flexible and fully-instrumented research tool for empirically evaluating alternative designs for these networks. The testbed simulates a class of a distributed knowledge-based problem solving systems operating on an abstracted version of a vehicle monitoring task. There are two important aspects to the testbed: (1.) it implements a novel generic architecture for distributed problems solving networks that exploits the use of sophisticated local node control and meta-level control to improve global coherence in network problem solving; (2.) it serves as an example of how a testbed can be engineered to permit the empirical exploration of design issues in knowledge AI systems. The testbed is capable of simulating different degrees of sophistication in problem solving knowledge and focus-of attention mechanisms, for varying the distribution and characteristics of error in its (simulated) input data, and for measuring the progress of problem solving. Node configuration and communication channel characteristics can also be independently varied in the simulated network.

Machine learning has always been an integral part of artificial intelligence, and its methodology has evolved in concert with the major concerns of the field. In response to the difficulties of encoding ever-increasing volumes of knowledge in modern AI systems, many researchers have recently turned their attention to machine learning as a means to overcome the knowledge acquisition bottleneck. This article presents a taxonomic analysis of machine learning organized primarily by learning strategies and secondarily by knowledge representation and application areas. A historical survey outlining the development of various approaches to machine learning is presented from early neural networks to present knowledge-intensive techniques.

GLISP is a high-level language that is complied into LISP. It provides a versatile abstract-data-type facility with hierarchical inheritance of properties and object-centered programming. GLISP programs are shorter and more readable than equivalent LISP programs. The object code produced by GLISP is optimized, making it about as efficient as handwritten Lisp. An integrated programming environment is provided, including automatic incremental compilation, interpretive programming features, and an intelligent display-based inspector/editor for data and data-type descriptions. GLISP code is relatively portable; the compiler and data inspector are implemented for most major dialects of LISP and are available free or at nominal cost.