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AIList Digest Volume 1 Issue 015
AIList Digest Wednesday, 15 Jun 1983 Volume 1 : Issue 15
Today's Topics:
Natural Language Challenge
An entertaining AI project?
Lisp for VAX/VMS
Prolog For The Vax
Description of AI research at TRW
1984 National Computer Conference: Call for papers
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 10 Jun 1983 at 0928-PDT
From: zaumen@Sri-Tsc
Subject: Natural Language Application
Recently I had to try to understand the following sentence:
The insured hereby covenants that no release has been or will
be given to or settlement of compromise made with any third
party who may be liable in damages to the insured and the
insured in consideration of the payment made under the
policy hereby assigns and subrogates to the said Company
all rights and causes of action he may have because of this
loss, to the extent of payments made hereunder to him, and the
insured hereby authorizes the Company to prosecute any claim or
suit in its name or the name of the insured, against any person
or organization legally responsible for the loss.
I could only guess at what this means. The main clue seems to be that
the reference to "the Company" is in a form normally reserved for a
diety.
I agree to give one can of Coors Lite to the first person who shows me
a valid parsing (done by an AI program) of the above legalese. This
may seem like a very low payment considering the difficulty of the
task: it merely reflects my opinion of legalese.
------------------------------
Date: 12 Jun 1983 1733-MDT
From: William Galway <Galway@UTAH-20>
Subject: An entertaining AI project?
I seem to recall that "off the wall" ideas were suggested as one of
the topics for this mailing list, so here goes.
We're all familiar with computer programs that play games like chess
and backgammon, but what about the new generation of games that have
sprung up with computers? For example, I think ROGUE would be a
nearly ideal game for a computer to play both sides of. The game is
highly structured in many ways, but might still provide interesting
problems in perception, knowledge representation, and learning.
Would anyone care to take the challenge to write such a program?
Could they suggest other similar games that would be appropriate for
computers to play? (Pacman?) Is there anything new to be learned in
writing such a program, or would it just be an expensive toy? (Or
teaching aid, for a class project?)
Thanks.
--Will Galway
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1983 20:58 EDT
From: GJC%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC
Subject: Lisp for VAX/VMS
VAX-NIL is a native VAX/VMS lisp programming environment, receiving
support from both the Laboratory for Computer Science and the
Artifical Intelligence Laboratory at MIT for use as a research tool.
As a lisp programming environment it is entirely self contained in one
large address space, including a compatible EMACS editor written in
NIL. The language is a superset of that defined in the Common-Lisp
standard, and is greatly influenced by many language features of the
Lispmachine and Maclisp.
A distribution kit can be obtained from GSB@MIT-ML.
-GJC
------------------------------
Date: Sun 12 Jun 83 19:44:10-PDT
From: SHardy@SRI-KL.ARPA
Subject: Prolog For The Vax
[Reprinted from the Prolog Digest.]
Implementation For VAX/VMS
The Sussex Poplog system is a multi-language programming environment
for AI tasks. It includes:
(a) A native mode Prolog compiler, compatible with the Clocksin and
Mellish book. The system supports floating point arithmetic.
(b) A POP-11 compiler. POP-11 and Prolog programs may share data
structures and may call each other as subroutines; they may also
co-routine with each other. (POP is the British derivative of
LISP; functionally equivalent to Lisp, it has a more conventional
syntax.)
(c) VED, an Emacs like extendible editor, is part of the run time
system. VED is written in POP-11 and so can easily be extended.
It can also be used for input (e.g. simple menus) and for output
(simple cellular graphics). VED and the compilers share memory,
making for a well integrated programming environment.
(d) Subroutines written in other languages, e.g. Fortran, may be
linked in as new built in predicates.
Prolog's complex architecture was designed to help build blackboard
systems working on large amounts of numerical data. The intention is
that Fortran (or a similar language) be used for array processing;
POP-11 will be used for manipulating agendas and other procedurally
oriented tasks and Prolog will be used for logical inference.
However, the components of Prolog can be used individually without
knowledge of the other components. To some users, Poplog is simply a
powerful text editor, to others it just a Prolog system.
Poplog has been adopted, along with Franz LISP and DEC-20 Prolog, as
part of the "common software base" for the IKBS program (Britain's
response to The Fifth Generation).
The system is being transported to the PERQ and Motorola 68000, as
well as being converted for VAX/UNIX.
Although full details haven't yet been announced, the system will be
commercially supported. The license fee will be approx $10,000 with
maintenance approx. $1,000 per annum. For more details, write to:
Dr Aaron Sloman
Cognitive Studies Programme
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton, ENGLAND
(273) 606755
-- Steve Hardy,
Teknowledge
------------------------------
Date: 10 Jun 83 9:18:36-PDT (Fri)
From:
Subject: Description of AI research at TRW
Article-I.D.: trw-unix.302
AI RESEARCH AT TRW
June, 1983
This short note is meant to describe current AI research taking
place at ("A Company Called...") TRW. I've received curious and
quizzical looks in the past when stating where I work to folks at AAAI
and other conferences. Perhaps it would be informative to give a
quick rundown of what sort of AI we do around here.
AI research is going on in at least four laboratories in three
locations, all within TRW's Defense Systems Group (although we
"consult" internally to the Space and Technology Group). We will be
presenting at least three papers at IJCAI and AAAI this year, so one
can see our growing involvement. For more detailed info, I welcome
your inquiries.
Systems Engineering and Development Division (Redondo Beach, CA):
Projects include extensive experiments with decision aids for
military command and control needs. The problems range from situation
assessment to resource allocation techniques. Of particular recent
interest is the use of object-oriented languages for strategic and
tactical modelling and gaming, as well as various inference schemes to
analyze and diagnose the states of those models to aid the user in
creating plans of action.
Additional work is being done in intelligent terminal design,
heuristic system parameter tuning, a little bit of smart database
query work, and a lot of work on fancy highly adaptable I/O and
graphics for Intelligence Analysis workstations.
Software and Information Systems Division (Redondo Beach, CA):
This Division concentrates on signal processing applications of
various AI techniques. Work continues to expand in pattern analysis,
deduction mechanisms for signal processing and system tuning, and for
computer network analysis.
ESL, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA):
This subsidiary of TRW also works heavily in the signal
processing arena. It also uses expert systems approaches to diagnose
states of the (electronic) world. Further, one project is providing
experimental automated decision support for strategic indications and
warning analysts.
Special Programs (Washington, DC):
This group of specialists provides domain knowledge support for
the various systems under research or development in the rest of the
company. This expertise augments that already in California.
-----
We use all of the software and hardware tools we can find, at
least to try them out. A complete list would be too long for this
note.
I hope this has cleared up some of the most frequently asked
questions about what TRW is doing in AI....
Mark D. Grover
TRW Defense Systems Group
One Space Park, 134/4851
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
(213) 217-3563
{decvax, ucbvax, randvax}!
trw-unix!mdgrover
------------------------------
Date: Sun 12 Jun 83 13:22:05-PDT
From: Jim Miller <JMILLER@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>
Subject: 1984 National Computer Conference: Call for papers
The call for papers for the 1984 National Computer Conference has
been released; a copy of it is enclosed below. As the program chair
for the artificial intelligence / human-computer interaction track, I
hope that members of the AI community will give serious thought to
preparing papers and sessions for NCC. This meeting offers us a real
voice in the conference's program, as six program sessions will be
devoted to AI, far more than in the past. Proposals on any aspect of
AI are welcome; I would only note that most of the people attending
the conference will have little familiarity with AI. Consequently,
extremely technical papers or sessions are probably not appropriate
for this meeting. I am particularly interested in sessions that would
summarize important subareas of AI at an introductory or tutorial
level, perhaps especially those that address aspects of AI that are
beginning to have an impact on the computer industry and society at
large. Please contact me if you have any questions about the
conference; my address, net address, and phone are below.
Jim Miller
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A CALL FOR PAPERS, SESSIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS
1984 NATIONAL COMPUTER CONFERENCE
July 9-12, 1984 Convention Center Las Vegas, Nevada
E N H A N C I N G C R E A T I V I T Y
You are invited to attend and to participate in the 1984 NCC
program. The 1984 theme, "Enhancing Creativity," reflects the
increasing personalization of computer systems, and the attendant
focus on individual productivity and innovation. In concert with the
expanded degrees of connectivity resulting from advances in data
communications, this trend is leading to dramatic changes in the
office, the factory, and the home.
The 1983 program will feature informative sessions on
contemporary issues that are critically important to the industry.
Sessions and papers will be selected on the basis of quality,
topicality, and suitability for the NCC audience. All subjects
related to computing technology and applications are suitable.
YOU CAN PARTICIPATE BY:
- Writing a paper
* Send for "Instructions to Authors" TODAY.
* Submit papers by October 31, 1983.
- Organizing and leading a session
* Send preliminary proposal (title, abstract, target
audience) by July 15, 1983.
* After preliminary approval, send final session proposal
by August 30, 1983.
- Serving as a reviewer for submitted papers and sessions
Authors and session leaders will receive final notification of
acceptance by January 31, 1984.
Send all submissions, proposals, correspondence and inquiries
about papers and sessions on ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE or HUMAN-COMPUTER
INTERACTION to:
James R. Miller
Computer * Thought Corporation
1721 West Plano Parkway
Plano, Texas 75075
214-424-3511
JMILLER@SUMEX-AIM
Send all other proposals or inquiries to:
Dennis J. Frailey, Program Chairman
Texas Instruments Incorporated
8642-A Spicewood Springs Road
Suite 1984
P.O. Box 10988
Austin, Texas 78766-1988
512-250-6663
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End of AIList Digest
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