THE AGE of INTELLIGENT MACHINES Knowledge Processing–From File Servers to Knowledge Servers

This chapter from The Age of Intelligent Machines (published in 1990) addresses the history and development of AI, and where it was headed, circa 1990. Edward Feigenbaum is a Professor of Computer Science and Co-Scientific Director of the Knowledge Systems Laboratory at Stanford University. Dr. Feigenbaum served as Chief Scientist of the United States Air Force from 1994 to 1997. It has been said that when people make forecasts, they overestimate what can be done in the short run and underestimate what can be achieved in the long run. I have worked in the science and technology of artificial intelligence for twenty years and confess to being chronically optimistic about its progress. The gains have been substantial, even impressive. But we have hardly begun, and we must not lose sight of the point to which we are heading, however distant it may seem.