Member's Forum

For several years now, many members of the AI research community have expressed dissatisfaction with the paper review process for the National Conference on AI (AAAI). Accepted papers are almost universally written very conservatively, and many of the most interesting recent results have appeared in only specialty conferences, not at AAAI. The innovative, controversial papers that used to characterize the conference are getting harder and harder to find in the proceedings. Several efforts have been made by program chairs in recent years to improve the situation. For AAAI-93, an extensive effort was made to encourage reviewers to accept "innovative" papers.