cyc

Cyc

   <artificial intelligence> A large {knowledge-based system}.

   Cyc is a very large, multi-contextual {knowledge base} and
   {inference engine}, the development of which started at the
   {Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation} (MCC)
   in Austin, Texas during the early 1980s.

   Over the past eleven years the members of the Cyc team, lead
   by {Doug Lenat}, have added to the knowledge base a huge
   amount of fundamental human knowledge: {facts}, rules of
   thumb, and {heuristics} for reasoning about the objects and
   events of modern everyday life.

   Cyc is an attempt to do symbolic {AI} on a massive scale.  It
   is not based on numerical methods such as statistical
   probabilities, nor is it based on {neural networks} or {fuzzy
   logic}.  All of the knowledge in Cyc is represented
   {declaratively} in the form of logical {assertions}.  Cyc
   presently contains approximately 400,000 significant
   assertions, which include simple statements of fact, rules
   about what conclusions to draw if certain statements of fact
   are satisfied, and rules about how to reason with certain
   types of facts and rules.  The {inference engine} derives new
   conclusions using {deductive reasoning}.

   To date, Cyc has made possible ground-breaking pilot
   applications in the areas of {heterogeneous} database browsing
   and integration, {captioned image retrieval}, and {natural
   language processing}.

   In January of 1995, a new independent company named Cycorp was
   created to continue the Cyc project.  Cycorp is still in
   Austin, Texas.  The president of Cycorp is {Doug Lenat}.

   The development of Cyc has been supported by several
   organisations, including {Apple}, {Bellcore}, {DEC}, {DoD},
   {Interval}, {Kodak}, and {Microsoft}.

   (http://cyc.com/).

   Unofficial FAQ (http://robotwisdom.com/ai/cycfaq.html).

   (1999-09-07)