Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!uwvax!uwslh!lishka
From: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Not an illusion!)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: AI and Hypertext
Message-ID: <435@uwslh.UUCP>
Date: 20 Jul 89 14:11:11 GMT
References: <20607@bikini.cis.ufl.EDU>
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison, State Hygiene Lab
Lines: 77

hwb@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Howard Beck) writes:


>What does hypertext have to do with AI?

     Last semester in an expert systems course I took, my professor
(Larry Travis, at the Univ. of Wisconsin), predicted that expert
systems, hypertext, and databases were all on a collision course and
would merge into a common computer science technology.  I can
certainly see this, since the knowledge bases of expert systems and
databases are fairly similar. 

     As for hypertext systems and expert systems, I can certainly see
a common area.  One could (theoretically speaking) build a system
which crossed the knowledge base with hypertext-like links.  This
would at least give a really fun way of browsing through a knowledge
base.  

     I could also imagine building a human-readable knowledge base
(like a standard document, or paper) which had embedded rules within
in, along with hypertext links.  This way one could read through the
human version of the document (the "formal specification," if you
will), examine the rules being used to model the formal specs by
activating hypertext buttons in the document (one could easily see
which rules pertained to a particular portion of the document), and
then follow links between related sections of the document to find
related rules and descriptions, etc.  This is just conjecture, but it
would probably work.

>I see very little going on in hypertext systems since 1> The relationships
>among topics are hardwired by the hypertext document developers who
>manually create links and likewise 2> The user must manually search
>for information by selecting the appropriate links.  In other words,
>the computer has very little to do with the organization and
>retrieval of information, let alone anything even semi-intelligent.

     This may currently be the manner in which hypertext systems are
implemented.  However, if we stretch our minds a bit, I am sure some
more interesting schemes would arise.  If you want some real AI in a
hypertext system with present technology, I would think that the
documents would need some embedded information built into them, such
as the rules I described above or maybe just keywords.  At the very
least, then, one could implement some AI search heuristics that could
semi-automatically browse through the hyper-document.

>So when I see advertisments for expert system shells including
>hypertext capabilities, my expectations are raised only to find that
>the hypertext portion has been used to create a glorified help section.

     It seems to me this kind of hype is the case with a lot of
commercial expert systems.  Prof. Travis claimed that even though
there were dozens of expert system books being published, he had only
found two worth using in our course.  Also, expert systems (like much
of AI) have been oversold to the public, with the "features"
advertised by the companies being far less valuable and easy than they
would like you to believe.  However, this seems to be the case with
much commercial AI technology (witness the large commercial and
military projects, which first claimed that speech recognition was
easy, then claimed that expert systems would solve so many difficult
problems, then said that stuff like "autonomous land vehicles" would
be with us in such a short time, and now are going on about how 
neural nets are going to be so useful because they will be able to
learn new problems; a helluva lot of hype, but not much has come of
it).   It does not surprise me in the least that hypertext has gotten
mixed into this arena of big promises and little substance.

     But enough babbling....

						.oO Chris Oo.
-- 
Christopher Lishka                 ...!{rutgers|ucbvax|...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishka
Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene                   lishka%uwslh.uucp@cs.wisc.edu
Data Processing Section  (608)262-4485                       lishka@uwslh.uucp

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind -- or not to have a mind at all.
How true that is." -- V.P. Dan Quayle, garbling the United Negro College
Fund slogan in an address to the group (from Newsweek, May 22nd, 1989)