Artificial intelligence framework developed by UCLA professor now powers Toyota websites

An innovation in artificial intelligence that was described in a 2001 paper by a UCLA computer science professor has found a somewhat unexpected application: helping car buyers customize their vehicles online. The software that powers the sites, called a "product configurator," is based on a logical form of artificial intelligence that was devised by Professor Adnan Darwiche. The websites use artificial intelligence to perform sophisticated, real-time reasoning to ensure that if a consumer wants a specific vehicle -- for example, a red Camry with a tan interior and a performance package -- that exact combination of options could be manufactured by the company or is available in its inventory. The websites can also reason about features that are co-dependent, such as removing a minimum number of features when a combination is not feasible or determining which features must be bought together. "I was very pleased to see this appreciation for the practical significance of my work to the point of adopting it for this massive commercial application," Darwiche said.