The annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is the largest and most important meeting of AI theoreticians and practitioners in the United States. This year, the conference was held in Seattle, Wash., and paid attendance was just under 5100. Last year's Philadelphia conference drew 5400. The drop in attendance was primarily the result of competition with the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, which took place in Milan a few weeks after AAAI.

The annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is the premier U.S. gathering for artificial intelligence (AI) theoreticians and practitioners. On the commercial side, AAAI is the only event with a comprehensive exhibition that includes most significant U.S. vendors of AI products and services. In 1986 some 5100 people attended AAAI- a very good showing considering that the 1987 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) drew about the same number of people even with its substantial international support. The commercial exhibits at AAAI-86 (110 exhibitors; 80,000 square feet) gave us opportunity to take a snapshot of an industry in transition.

The annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is the premier U.S. gathering for artificial intelligence (AI) theoreticians and practitioners. On the commercial side, AAAI is the only event with a comprehensive exhibition that includes most significant U.S. vendors of AI products and services. In 1986 some 5100 people attended AAAI- a very good showing considering that the 1987 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) drew about the same number of people even with its substantial international support. The commercial exhibits at AAAI-86 (110 exhibitors; 80,000 square feet) gave us opportunity to take a snapshot of an industry in transition. What I saw was a dramatic increase in the commercialization of AI technology and a decrease in the mystique, smoke, and hype. A preliminary tour of the AAAI-86 exhibits indicated that participants could expect substantial changes from the situation at IJCAI-85.