Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!hcsrnd!tusveld
From: tusveld@hcsrnd.UUCP (Fred Tusveld)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: ** Some impressions on AAAI-90 **
Message-ID: <449@hcsrnd.UUCP>
Date: 8 Aug 90 14:13:49 GMT
References: <665@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu> <|~0$!}_@ads.com>
Organization: HCS Technology BV, The Netherlands
Lines: 38

marcel@ADS.COM (Marcel Schoppers) writes:



Status: R

In comp.ai you write:



>Second comment: for much of the outside world (as I hear it from the
>company my wife works for), the one and only good thing ever done by AI
>was the invention of expert systems.  Since then (it is said) we have
>merely been soaking up money and have not much to show for it.  As my own
>interpretation of that viewpoint, let me paraphrase a comment that was made
>(by a control systems person) in the workshop I convened just before the
>conference: research is not about inventing techniques, it is about solving
>problems.  That comment reminded me of my own occasional perception that AI
>research is less about solving problems than it is about inventing techniques,
>especially techniques with memorable names.  (How many papers in this year's
>proceedings even mention an application, let alone a successful one?  Leave
>it to someone else to fail in the attempt to migrate the ideas into practice!)
>Perceptions such as these, whether or not they are quite justified, will draw
>neither much attendance nor much funding.

>I raise the above as hypotheses, however implausible, and leave it to
>general discussion to do the evidence accrual.

>Marcel Schoppers
I agree on the fact that the AAAI this year was particularly theoretical. A few years ago, there used to be an Applications track in the conference.
The theoretic flavour of the AAAI is partly due to the success of AI in industry. Distinct conferences addressing AI applications (eg. IAAI, IEEE CAIA) have emerged and receive a lot of attention.  Also, in subfields of AI more conferences are being held. 
A disadvantage, however, is that the cross-fertilization that industry and academia may provide by confronting each other is hard to find these days.

Fred TusveldHCS Technology, Industrial Automation, R&D
Landdrostlaan 51, 7302 HA Apeldoorn The Netherlands
tel. +31 55 498600
tusveld@hcsrnd.uucp.nl
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