The period since the last conference in this series has been characterized by the explosive expansion of AI out of the confines of institutions of basic research like university departments into the worlds of industry, business, and government (a development I had long expected). But it seems to me that there are plenty -- perhaps an overabundance -- of other occasions, other conferences. Other workshops, and like, at which the applications of AI would appropriately be considered.

A pattern recognition algorithm is described that learns a transition net grammar from positive examples. Two sets of examples -- one in English and one in Chinese -- are presented. It is hoped that language learning will reduce the knowledge acquisition effort for expert systems and make the natural language interface to database systems more transportable. The algorithm presented makes a step in that direction by providing a robust parser and reducing special interaction for introduction of new words and terms.

Tin Nguyen performed the work contained in the article "Knowledge Base Verification" while at Lockheed and is currently working for Bell Northern Research as a member of the research staff. Deanne Pecora, a staff engineer with the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center, 2710 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, is working on Rick Brigs, author of "Knowledge Representation and Inference in Sanskrit: A applying knowledge-based systems to Review of the First National Conference," is a senior engineer at Delfin Systems, real problems. She is a coauthor of 1349 Moffett Park Drive, Sunnyvale, California 94089. Briggs is currently working'Knowledge Base Verification." Walt Perkins, coauthor of "Knowledge Base Verification" is a consulting scientist Lindley Darden, who wrote "Viewing the History of Science as Compiled Hindsight," with the Lockheed Artificial is an associate professor in the departments of philosophy and history and Intelligence Center, 2710 Sand Hill a member of the graduate faculty in the Committee on the History and Philosophy Road, Menlo Park, California 94025 of Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is currently and the principal developer of the serving in the second year of a halftime research appointment at the University Lockheed expert system. of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. Her mailing address is Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland David Prerau is a principal member of 20742. The primary responsibility is to lead the author of "The 1985 Workshop on Distributed Artificial Intelligence, he is currently development of major expert systems working in the area of distributed artificial intelligence and is organizing with high corporate payoff and impact.

See Steamer: an Interactive Inspectable Samulation-Based Reid.

The period since the last conference in this series has been characterized by the explosive expansion of AI out of the confines of institutions of basic research like university departments into the worlds of industry, business, and government (a development I had long expected). But it seems to me that there are plenty -- perhaps an overabundance -- of other occasions, other conferences. Other workshops, and like, at which the applications of AI would appropriately be considered. I will confine my remarks, therefore, to issues of basic research.

In the first section, some characteristic features of AI research in France are presented, including difficulties with the current means and the current organization of AI research. In the second section, the state-of-the-art in different areas of AI is described. Besides some weakness, and in spite of the general difficulties mentioned in the first section, strong points and great potentialities are exhibited. This allows us to conclude that AI research in France may play an important part at the international level, if the necessary means for its development in the middle and long term are given.

We're pleased to introduce this new section, "AAAI News," as a regular feature in the AI Magazine. AAAI Membership Statistics purpose is to inform AAAI members about AAAI During 1984 the AAAI membership increased from organizational activities and to allow greater participation 3,000 members to 7,492 members! by the members in these activities. The AI Magazine Bledsoe, the AAAI's Executive Council initiated several new committees to review the diverse scientific and educational Production Notes: We have changed our printer and needs of the the AAAI membership; to evaluate mailing house from the Bay Area to the Los Angeles area. We are also making slight and services. Each committee has a particular charter alterations to the design of the publication.

I Section 6. Resignation: Any member may resign by filing a written resignation with the Secretary-Treasurer. Section 7. Reinstatement: Upon written request by a Section 2. Other Ofices: The corporation may have former member filed with the Secretary-Treasurer, the Executive such other offices, either within or without the County of Council, by majority vote, may reinstate a former San Mateo, State of California, as the Executive Council member. Section 8. Transfer of Membership: Membership in this corporation is not transferable or assignable. Section 1. Classes of Members: The corporation shall Section 1. Annual Meetang: The annual meeting of the have two classes of members: Regular and Student. Student Corporation will take place during its Annual Conference.

In the past twenty years, much time, effort, and money has been expended on designing an unambiguous representation of natural language to make them accessible to computer processing, These efforts have centered around creating schemata designed to parallel logical relations with relations expressed by the syntax and semantics of natural languages, which are clearly cumbersome and ambiguous in their function as vehicles for the transmission of logical data. Understandably, there is a widespread belief that natural languages are unsuitable for the transmission of many ideas that artificial languages can render with great precision and mathematical rigor. But this dichotomy, which has served as a premise underlying much work in the areas of linguistics and artificial intelligence, is a false one. There is at least one language, Sanskrit, which for the duration of almost 1000 years was a living spoken language with a considerable literature of its own. Besides works of literary value, there was a long philosophical and grammatical tradition that has continued to exist with undiminished vigor until the present century. Among the accomplishments of the grammarians can be reckoned a method for paraphrasing Sanskrit in a manner that is identical not only in essence but in form with current work in Artificial Intelligence. This article demonstrates that a natural language can serve as an artificial language also, and that much work in AI has been reinventing a wheel millenia old. First, a typical Knowledge Representation Scheme (using Semantic Nets) will be laid out, followed by an outline of the method used by the ancient Indian grammarians to analyze sentences unambiguously. Finally, the clear parallelism between the two will be demonstrated, and the theoretical implications of this equivalence will be given.

What are the powerful new ideas in knowledge based design? What important research issues require further investigation? Perhaps the key research problem in AI-based design for the 1980's is to develop better models of the design process. A comprehensive model of design should address the following aspects of the design process:the state of the design ; the goal structure of the design process;design decisions; rationales for design decisions; control of the design process; and the role of learning in design. This article presents some of the most important ideas emerging from current AI research on design especially ideas for better models design. It is organized into sections dealing with each of the aspects of design listed above.