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From: jstout@atc.boeing.com (Jeffrey Stout)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.shells
Subject: Re: Knowledge Acquisition a Shame!
Message-ID: <6025@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de>
Date: 3 Jul 90 23:18:25 GMT
References: <5993@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de>
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Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
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Posted-Date: Wed Jul  4 09:13:27 GMT 1990
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In article <5993@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de> jej@chinet.chi.il.us (joe jesson) writes:
>
> I work for a large company and recently been reviewing KA packages for
>commercial use - what a joke. The maturity of such tools leave a great deal
>to be desired and have been an academic exercise. The Knowledge-based tools
>include Acquinas, Salt (if you want to hire Boeing Consultants, fine, if not
>forget it), etc.
>
>Most of the tools discussed by Gaines, Boose, et. al. have never stood up to
>commercial use and is generally useless as a development tool. For cetain
>classes of problems (diagnostic), decision trees are of practical use and
>induction tools represent a _starting_ point. ..

As one of the people who worked on the development of SALT at CMU (and a
Boeing employee as well), I feel an obligation to point out that SALT was in
fact used in a commercial application (at CMU).

However, you _do_ have a point.  This technology is _not_ very mature,
especially in the area of constructive systems (such as SALT).

My experience has been that the only people who claim the technology is
mature are the people who are selling such tools.  My work is in the area
of knowledge acquisition for scheduling domains, and more than once I've
run across people who believe it is a solved problem because they've been
talking to a commercial vendor.

Commercial KA tools may be "jokes", but it is because they give up a great
deal of power by being so general (in order to be easier to market).  I
don't think anyone would argue that KA tools with a more limited scope
tend to be better for the things they do then the general "products" out
there.  The problem is that these systems do not make much of a dent in
"the set of all problems in the world".  But we're working on it.

Disclaimers:	SALT, Silica, and Aquinas are _NOT_ Boeing products.
		Any opinions expressed here are my own, not Boeing's.


			"We shall reach greater and greater platitudes of
			  achievement."
					--Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley

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