The Role of Intelligent Systems in the National Information Infrastructure

This report stems from a workshop that was organized by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and cosponsored by the Information Technology and Organizations Program of the National Science Foundation. The purpose of the workshop was twofold: first, to increase awareness among the artificial intelligence (AI) community of opportunities presented by the National Information Infrastructure (NII) activities, in particular, the Information Infrastructure and Technology Applications (IITA) component of the High Performance Computing and Communications Program; and second, to identify key contributions of research in AI to the NII and IITA. The workshop included a presentation by NSF of IITA program goals and a brief discussion of a report aimed at identifying important AI research thrusts that could support the development of twenty-first century computing systems. That report, as well as the full set of initial suggestions for it from AAAI fellows and officers, was circulated to attendees prior to the workshop. Workshop attendees identified specific contributions that AI research could make in the next decade to the technology base needed for NII/IITA and the major research challenges that had to be met.