Practical machine intelligence

Machine intelligence, more commonly known by the misnomer artifical intelligence, is now about twenty-five years old as a scientific field. In contrast with early predictions, its practical applicability has been frustratingly slow to develop. It appears, however, that we are now (finally!) on the verge of practicality in a number of specialities within machine intelligence more or less simultaneously. This can be expected to result in the short term in a qualitative shift in the nature of the field itself, and to result in the longer term in a shift in the way certain industries go about their business. Machine Intelligence Corporation (MIC) was founded in 1978 as a vehicle for bringing the more practical aspects of the field into widespread use. Its charter is to develop, produce and market products based on many aspects of Machine Intelligence technology. This paper will discuss three specific areas of work in machine intelligence that MIC feels are ripe for commercial application: machine vision, naturallanguage access to computers, and expert systems. It will close with some observations on what makes these areas appropriate for application at this time, and on the difference between a technical solution to a problem and a product.