Collaborative Systems

intelligent, collaborative problem-solving partners is an important goal for both the science of AI and its application. From the scientific perspective , the development of theories and mechanisms to enable building collaborative systems presents exciting research challenges across AI subfields. From the applications perspective , the capability to collaborate with users and other systems is essential if large-scale information systems of the future are to assist users in finding the information they need and solving the problems they have. In this address, it is argued that collaboration must be designed into systems from the start; it cannot be patched on. Key features of collaborative activity are described, the scientific base provided by recent AI research is discussed, and several of the research challenges posed by collaboration are presented. It is further argued that research on, and the development of, collaborative systems should itself be a collaborative endeav-or—within AI, across subfields of computer science , and with researchers in other fields. A I has always pushed forward on the frontiers of computer science. Our efforts to understand intelligent behavior and the ways in which it could be embodied in computer systems have led both to a richer scientific understanding of various aspects of intelligence and to the development of smarter computer systems. In his keynote address at AAAI-94, Raj Reddy described several of those advances as well as challenges for the future. The Proceedings of the AAAI Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence conferences contain descriptions of many commercial systems that employ AI techniques to provide greater power or flexibility. For this Presidential address, I have decided to focus on one such frontier area: the understanding of collaborative systems and the development of the foundations—the representations , theories, computational models and processes—needed to construct computer systems that are intelligent collaborative partners in solving their users' problems. In doing so, I follow the precedent set by Allen Newell in his 1980 Presidential Address (Newell 1981, p. 1) of focusing on the state of the science rather than the state of the society. I also follow a more recent precedent, that set by Daniel Bobrow in his 1990 Presidential address (Bobrow 1991, p. 65), namely, examining the issues to be faced in moving beyond what he called the " isolation assumptions " of much of AI to the design and analysis of systems of multiple agents interacting with each other and the world. I …