Contrary to many prevailing approaches to knowledge acquisition, Laps, our expert-interviewing software, begins by soliciting cases from the expert, but it does not end there. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it interweaves knowledge gathering, organizing, and testing. Laps begins with a case in the form of a sample solution path elicited from the domain expert. This sample solution path is refined by a process called dechunking, which facilitates finding a model of the expert's reasoning process. The model guides the determination of the structure of alternatives tables at an effective level of abstraction. Once these tables have been set up, the expert is able to produce row after row on his own until a complete rule base is built. A rule generator currently produces rules in Clips or M.1 syntax.

After explicating the need for a large commonsense knowledge base spanning human consensus knowledge, we report on many of the lessons learned over the first five years of attempting its construction. We have come a long way in terms of methodology, representation language, techniques for efficient inferencing, the ontology of the knowledge base, and the environment and infrastructure in which the knowledge base is being built. We describe the evolution of Cyc and its current state and close with a look at our plans and expectations for the coming five years, including an argument for how and why the project might conclude at the end of this time.

The second workshop in two years on the integration of knowledge-based systems with conventional computer techniques in agriculture and natural resource management (NRM) was held 18-19 August 1989 in Detroit, Michigan, in conjunction with the Tenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. The workshop drew scientists from the United States and Canada, working in disciplines from engineering to entomology in universities, government, and industry. Twenty-two papers were presented at the workshop, after which participants were asked to discuss several key questions about the development, delivery, and use of knowledge-based systems in solving problems in agriculture and NRM.

Thirty users of AI systems, 8. Make sure everyone knows at the Intelligence has announced that, key role in systems that enhance the 1. Integrating AI with traditional starting next year, its National Conference human values of the world we live in." He 2. AI may be only part of the system/ The 1991 AAAI Conferences will noted that, "Some of the most important solution, but it is increasingly the take place in Anaheim, California results of technology transfer part that makes the whole work. The National Conference will be the unexpected." "This is a recognition of changing significant benefits." "As AI moves more broadly champion" outside the AI/IS area, presentations focused on the approaches AI solutions that were only theory 12 to 18 months ago."

Term Subsumption Languages in Knowledge Representation

Review of Pattern Recognizition

The Workshop on Future Directions in NLP was held at Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN), in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 29 November to 1 December 1989. The workshop was organized and hosted by Madeleine Bates and Ralph Weischedel of the BBN Speech and Natural Language Department and sponsored by BBN's Science Development Program.

This article examines the near-term impact of expert system technology on work and the organization. From this analysis, a framework is constructed for viewing the impact of these technologies -- and technologies in general -- as a function of the technology itself; market realities; and personal, organizational, and societal values and policy choices. Two scenarios are proposed with respect to the application of this framework to expert systems. The second scenario posits that expert system diffusion will be pulled by, and will be a contributing factor toward, the evolution of the lean, flexible, knowledge-intensive, postindustrial organization.

In his new book "Alternate Realities: Mathematical Models of Nature and Man (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1989, 493 pages, $34.95), John L. Casti gives us an impressive, up-to-date look at several areas of mathematics that are being applied to the study of biological and sociological systems.

It reviews existing approaches such as inference structures, the distinction between deep and surface knowledge, problem-solving methods, and generic tasks. A new synthesis is put forward in the form of a componential framework that stresses modularity and an analysis of the pragmatic constraints on the task. The analysis of a rule from an existing expert system (the Dipmeter Advisor) is used to illustrate the framework.