In its early stages, the field of AI had as its main goal the invention of computer programs having the general problem-solving abilities of humans. Along the way, a major shift of emphasis developed from general-purpose programs toward performance programs, ones whose competence was highly specialized and limited to particular areas of expertise. In this article, I claim that AI is now at the beginning of another transition, one that will reinvigorate efforts to build programs of general, humanlike competence. These programs will use specialized performance programs as tools, much like humans do.

In addition to process control, the forum plans to address issues related to evolving technologies, Eastman Kodak (Rochester, N.Y.), a most popular Internet navigator and FDA, EPA, and OSHA compliance, manufacturer of imaging-related products, front-end tools. CERN has chosen safety and environmental concerns, has developed an online neural Harlequin to continue development and application of industry network-based machine vision system and commercialization of its Web standards. KnowledgeBroker (Reno, Nev.), a This Windows-based inspection Ingersoll Milling Machines (Rockford, supplier of expert system-based help system automatically inspects and Ill.), a manufacturer of industrial desk support software, has signed a analyzes the fine-pitch solder paste products, has developed an expert system-based support contract with American physical quality. Following an initial neural network-based optical character schedules and reports on the activities rollout, KnowledgeBroker's HelpNet recognition (OCR) technology, has that need to be completed to successfully 800/900 Service will provide 24-hour signed an agreement to supply IBM install each customer's order. It live technical computer support for Ireland with OCR Readers for AN allows a customer to directly access shrink-wrapped software applications POST, Ireland's national postal service. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage ground data, control center Corp., better known as Freddie Mac BrainTech (Scottsdale, Ariz.), a developer hardware and software, has been of neural network and fuzzy logic-based Diego, Calif.) to use HNC's neural network-based Va.), a developer of acoustic systems La.), an oil refinery, has tested and Contel's subscribers will be able to The new software will allow traffic installed a neural network-based speak a natural stream of continuous controllers in the new $11 million application to control its atmospheric digits to place phone calls from Greater Houston Traffic and Emergency tower.

Moore's technique employs a conventional

The vertical launch system (vls) tech-assist expert system is being used by the in-service engineering agent as a force multiplier to maintain the readiness, with fewer resources, of a growing population of vlss in the U.S. Navy fleet. This article describes the collaborative development of this knowledge-based system for diagnosis; its main features, including case-based and model-based reasoning; and the lessons we learned from the process.

Countrywide loan-underwriting expert system (clues) is an advanced, automated mortgage-underwriting rule-based expert system. The system receives selected information from the loan application, credit report, and appraisal. It then decides whether the loan should be approved or whether it requires further review by a human underwriter. If the system approves the loan, no further review is required, and the application is funded.

The vertical launch system (vls) tech-assist expert system is being used by the in-service engineering agent as a force multiplier to maintain the readiness, with fewer resources, of a growing population of vlss in the U.S. Navy fleet. This article describes the collaborative development of this knowledge-based system for diagnosis; its main features, including case-based and model-based reasoning; and the lessons we learned from the process.

The Workshop on Using Knowledge in Its Context was held in Chambery, France, on 28 August 1993, preceding the Thirteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-93). This article provides a summary of the discussions between the participants before (by e-mail) and during the one-day workshop. It is clear from these discussions that the notion of context is far from defined and is dependent in its interpretation on a cognitive science versus an engineering (or system building) point of view. In identifying the two points of view, this workshop permitted us to go one step further than previous workshops (notably Maskery and Meads [1992] and Maskery, Hopkins, and Dudley [1992]). Once a distinction is made on the viewpoint, one can achieve a surprising consensus on the aspects of context that the workshop addressed -- mainly, the position, the elements, the representation, and the use of context. Despite this consensus on the aspects of context, agreement on the definition of context was not yet achieved.

COMIX (configuration of mixing machines) is a system that assists members of the EKATO Sales Department in designing a mixing machine that fulfills the requirements of a customer. It is used to help the engineer design the requested machine and prepare an offer that's to be submitted to the customer. comix integrates more traditional software techniques with explicit knowledge representation and constraint propagation. During the process of routine design, some design decisions have to be made with uncertainty. By including knowledge from process technology and company experience in the mechanical design, a sufficiently high degree of flexibility is achieved that the system can even assist in difficult design situations. The success of the system can be measured by the increase in the quantity and the quality of the submitted offers.

Countrywide loan-underwriting expert system (clues) is an advanced, automated mortgage-underwriting rule-based expert system. The system was developed to increase the production capacity and productivity of Countrywide branches, improve the consistency of underwriting, and reduce the cost of originating a loan. The system receives selected information from the loan application, credit report, and appraisal. It then decides whether the loan should be approved or whether it requires further review by a human underwriter. If the system approves the loan, no further review is required, and the application is funded. clues has been in operation since February 1993 and is currently processing more than 8500 loans each month in over 300 decentralized branches around the country.

Given such a classification task in most cases it is not too difficult to devise a network architecture that is capable of learning the input-output relation as represented by a number of training examples.