This paper presents PARSECa system for generating connectionist parsing networks from example parses. PARSEC is not based on formal grammar systems and is geared toward spoken language tasks. PARSEC networks exhibit three strengths important for application to speech processing: 1)they learn to parse, and generalize well compared to handcoded grammars; 2) they tolerate several types of noise; 3) they can learn to use multi-modal input. Presented are the PARSEC architecture and performance analyses along several dimensions that demonstrate PARSEC's features. PARSEC's performance is compared to that of traditional grammar-basedparsing systems. 1 INTRODUCTION While a great deal of research has been done developing parsers for natural language, adequate solutionsfor some of the particular problems involved in spoken language have not been found. Among the unsolved problems are the difficulty in constructing task-specific grammars, lack of tolerance to noisy input, and inability to effectively utilize non-symbolic information.This paper describes PARSECa system for generating connectionist parsing networks from example parses.

JANUS translates continuously spoken English and German into German, English, and Japanese.

We describe a neural network, called RufeNet, that learns explicit, symbolic condition-action rules in a formal string manipulation domain. RuleNet discovers functional categories over elements of the domain, and, at various points during learning, extracts rules that operate on these categories. The rules are then injected back into RuleNet and training continues, in a process called iterative projection. By incorporating rules in this way, RuleNet exhibits enhanced learning and generalization performance over alternative neural net approaches. By integrating symbolic rule learning and subsymbolic category learning, RuleNet has capabilities that go beyond a purely symbolic system. We show how this architecture can be applied to the problem of case-role assignment in natural language processing, yielding a novel rule-based solution.

We present a Parallel Distributed Semantic (PDS) Network architecture that addresses the problems of sequencing and ambiguity resolution in natural language understanding. A PDS Network stores phrases and their meanings using multiple PDP networks, structured in the form of a semantic net. A mechanism called Propagation Filters is employed: (1) to control communication between networks, (2) to properly sequence the components of a phrase, and (3) to resolve ambiguities. Simulation results indicate that PDS Networks and Propagation Filters can successfully represent high-level knowledge, can be trained relatively quickly, and provide for parallel inferencing at the knowledge level. 1 INTRODUCTION Backpropagation has shown considerable potential for addressing problems in natural language processing (NLP). However, the traditional PDP [Rumelhart and McClelland, 1986] approach of using one (or a small number) of backprop networks for NLP has been plagued by a number of problems: (1) it has been largely unsuccessful at representing high-level knowledge, (2) the networks are slow to train, and (3) they are sequential at the knowledge level.

This paper presents PARSECa system for generating connectionist parsing networks from example parses. PARSEC is not based on formal grammar systems and is geared toward spoken language tasks. PARSEC networks exhibit three strengths important for application to speech processing: 1) they learn to parse, and generalize well compared to handcoded grammars; 2) they tolerate several types of noise; 3) they can learn to use multi-modal input. Presented are the PARSEC architecture and performance analyses along several dimensions that demonstrate PARSEC's features. PARSEC's performance is compared to that of traditional grammar-based parsing systems.

JANUS translates continuously spoken English and German into German, English, and Japanese. JANUS currently achieves 87% translation fidelity from English speech and 97% from German speech. We present the JANUS system along with comparative evaluations of its interchangeable processing components, with special emphasis on the connectionist modules.

The Digital Services Research Group and its predecessor groups and offshoots in Digital Equipment Corporation have been mobilizing leading-edge AI research to bear on real-life problems that face the corporation and its customers. The general strategy of the group is to explore emerging techniques relevant to service and support needs through developing rapid prototypes, deploying these prototypes, and incorporating feedback from users. With over 32 major projects undertaken during the past decade, we have worked on broad spectrum of problems and explored a variety of advanced AI techniques. This article describes the current AI activities in five areas: (1) enterprise advisory systems, (2) natural language processing and textual information retrieval, (3) largescale knowledge base management and access, (4) software configuration management, and (5) intrusion detection.

The Digital Services Research Group and its predecessor groups and offshoots in Digital Equipment Corporation have been mobilizing leading-edge AI research to bear on real-life problems that face the corporation and its customers. The general strategy of the group is to explore emerging techniques relevant to service and support needs through developing rapid prototypes, deploying these prototypes, and incorporating feedback from users. With over 32 major projects undertaken during the past decade, we have worked on broad spectrum of problems and explored a variety of advanced AI techniques. This article describes the current AI activities in five areas: (1) enterprise advisory systems, (2) natural language processing and textual information retrieval, (3) largescale knowledge base management and access, (4) software configuration management, and (5) intrusion detection. We also list some future research directions.

There is substantial evidence that AI technology can meet the requirements of the large potential market that will exist for knowledge-based software engineering at the turn of the century. In this article, which forms the conclusion to the AAAI Press book Automating Software Design, edited by Michael Lowry and Robert McCartney, Michael Lowry discusses the future of software engineering, and how knowledge-based software engineering (KBSE) progress will lead to system development environments. Specifically, Lowry examines how KBSE techniques promote additive programming methods and how they can be developed and introduced in an evolutionary way.

On Monday, 15 July 1991, prior to the Ninth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-91) in Anaheim, California, over 50 scientists and engineers attended the AAAI-91 Workshop on Intelligent Multimedia Interfaces. The purpose of the workshop was threefold: (1) bring together researchers and practitioners to report on current advances in intelligent multimedia interface systems and their underlying theories, (2) foster scientific interchange among these individuals, and (3) evaluate current efforts and make recommendations for future investigations.