Practical machine intelligence

It appears, however, that we [in AI] are now (finally!) on the verge of practicality in a number of specialities within machine intelligence more or less simultaneously. This can be expected to result in the short term in a qualitative shift in the nature of the field itself, and to result in the longer term in a shift in the way certain industries go about their businessThis paper will discuss three specific areas of work in machine intelligence that MIC [Machine Intelligence Corporation] feels are ripe for commercial application: machine vision, naturallanguage access to computers, and expert systems. It will close with some observations on what makes these areas appropriate for application at this time, and on the difference between a technical solution to a problem and a product.In Hayes, J. E., Michie, D., and Pao, Y.-H. (Eds.), Machine Intelligence 10. Ellis Horwood.