Guest-editorial: 25 years of AI*IA

This issue reviews the recent work of the Italian community in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The study of AI has a long tradition in Italy, it can be dated back to the early Seventies and the research groups are numerous and their activities span a wide range of themes, from knowledge representation and automated reasoning, to machine learning, from multi-agent systems to robotics, and many others. A notable characteristic of Italian research is that it is evenly distributed throughout the country and the collaborations between universities and other institutions are quite tight. Such collaborations lead in 1988 to the foundation of the Associazione Italiana per l’Intelligenza Artificiale — Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence — (AI*IA), a non-profit scientific society devoted to the promotion of AI, aiming at increasing the public awareness of AI, encouraging and supporting the teaching of AI subjects and promoting research in the field. The founder and first chair of AI*IA was prof. Luigia Carlucci Aiello. Prof. Aiello, together with the other chairs and the association members, soon raised the association to the highest international levels and became the promoters of initiatives that provided both educational and scientific opportunities to many young researchers. One of the most peculiar characteristics of the association is that it includes several working groups, focused on specific topics, which organize yearly meetings of their members and which foster cross-fertilization among their members and members of other working groups. Indeed, the working groups are a driving force of the association. This special issue is devoted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the foundation of AI*IA. 25 years is