Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!nixtdc!doug
From: doug@nixtdc.uucp (Doug Moen)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Doug Lenat's "cyc" project
Message-ID: <1990Jul31.034417.19350@nixtdc.uucp>
Date: 31 Jul 90 03:44:17 GMT
Reply-To: doug@nixtdc.UUCP (Doug Moen)
Organization: Nixdorf Computer Engineering Company
Lines: 27

The latest issue of "Discover" magazine has an article
on Doug Lenat's "cyc" project, which is nothing less
than a frame-based database of all of the common-place
knowledge of the world that a typical human adult would
have.  Apparently, they have been working on it for 6 years,
and there are several people who work full time adding new
knowledge to the database.  There is also a natural language
interface.  The article gives some short conversations
between cyc and a human that remind me of a bright
4 year old child asking questions of its parents.  In other
words, the article conveys the impression that the first
real artificial intelligence is in the process of being
constructed.  Lenat says it will be able to read and understand
English text in 5 years, at which point the rate at which
it can be educated will greatly increase.  Other authorities
apparently feel he is too optimistic.

On the other hand, the Hacker's Dictionary defines the
Lenat as the standard unit of bogosity, and goes on to
say that the micro-Lenat is the largest unit useable
for most applications.

Does anyone familiar with "cyc" want to comment?
My feeling is that someone is going to build an artificial
mind sooner or later, and cyc is a plausible first step.

Doug Moen.