Observations on the Role of Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Geographic Information Processing

Since the advent of expert systems in the early 1980s, there has been a growing interest in applying computers to domains such as medical diagnoses, curing crop diseases, and marketing. Research groups around the world have jumped on the “artificial intelligence” (AI) bandwagon by producing thousands of toy systems. The ability to program with heuristics made it possible to introduce computers in various domains. Computer applications suddenly moved out of the realm of number crunching into symbolic processing and heuristic reasoning. It appeared as if a research paper was written for every toy system built, and a professional conference or workshop was started for each new domain of applications. As we enter the 1990s, a definite slow down can be observed. Numerous journals have folded, a majority of AI companies have gone out of business, and conferences have been abandoned.