Introduction to the Special Issue on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence 2014

This year's special issue on innovative applications features articles describing four deployed and two emerging applications. The articles include three different types of recommender systems, which may be as much of a critique of the role of technology in society as it is an indication of recent research trends. Modern technology provides us with access to an increasingly overwhelming array of choices ranging from dating options to software capabilities to movies. However, as a society, we prefer not to turn the power of choice over to an automated system, thereby creating demand for AIbased technologies such as recommenders.